


The voices that call me

by Funyariinpa



Category: Fire Emblem: If | Fire Emblem: Fates, Super Smash Brothers
Genre: Corrin and Kamui see each other as siblings, Established Relationship, Fire Emblem Fates: Birthright Spoilers, Fire Emblem Fates: Conquest Spoilers, Gen, Hallucinations, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Mind Manipulation, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Past Lives, Sort Of, attempted self-harm, twins au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-12
Updated: 2019-06-24
Packaged: 2019-07-11 07:51:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 15
Words: 56,988
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15967946
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Funyariinpa/pseuds/Funyariinpa
Summary: A shady fortune-teller once told her that everyone had their inner demons that were too painful to face. That no matter how much you try to hide from them, they will keep creeping up on you until you have no choice but to find relief in surrendering to them. Corrin had her inner demons alright, she just didn't expect them to manifest as familiar voices from her past.Kamui is, to put it lightly, very worried.





	1. A bad omen

**Author's Note:**

> Nothing like the announcement of a new Smash game to make me want to write again. Anyway, this idea has been on my mind for a while, I only needed the right motivation to begin writing. 
> 
> Just to be clear, Kamui is the name of the male avatar, while Corrin is the name of the female avatar. Kamui comes from Birthright and Corrin comes from Conquest, so while they are not really brother and sister, they still tend to view each other as siblings.
> 
> This fic is crossposted from fanfiction.net

The sound of clashing blades echoed through Spear Pillar stage, as Kamui tried to fend off his opponent's heavy blows with the Yato. A bead of sweat ran down his face as he realized that he kept being pushed to the edge of the stage, teeth ranging as he couldn't find an opening to turn the tides in his favor.

"Ugh, this isn't good..." he whispered to himself.

The crowd started chanting his opponent's name, his fans going wild over the battle ahead of them, which only made Kamui's morale drop. Once he got some distance between them, he looked around him in order to find an item that could help him out, only to have his hopes crushed once he saw a miserable fire flower spawning right behind the tall blue haired man in front of him. Today really wasn't his lucky day!

Ike, Ike, Ike, Ike!

The fans kept cheering as Ike raised his sword, Ragnell, above his head. Kamui gave a step back, his foot meeting the edge of the stage. If Ike landed that hit, the Hoshidan prince would be sent away flying, ready to meet the stars that shone in the artificial night sky of the stage. He couldn't let the fight end like this, not without taking at least one life of the man! Losing was already bad, but losing by 3-0 was way worse.

As Ike brought his sword down, Kamui jumped and did a precise air dodge, managing to dash behind him and get the upper hand. His hand suddenly changed form into a spear as he charged his attack, however, Ike saw through his plans before they could come to fruition. He turned around and braced himself with the Ragnell, ready for the full impact. Once Kamui unleashed his attack, the mercenary blocked the spear and threw Kamui off balance. He then took his momentary daze to counter attack. Ike swung the Ragnell with all his might, bring it down on Kamui's exposed chest and sending him flying away.

The fight was brought to an end, with the stage being engulfed in light and transforming into the victory podium and Ike being declared the winner of the match.

As for Kamui, once they were done with all the formalities post-battle, all he wanted to do was find a whole in the ground and bury himself there. But since that was not an option, he decided that he would drown his bitterness with some ice cream. There was a mall nearby the stadium with all kinds of food stalls, so he decided to head there and buy something for himself. As he walked through the white lit corridors that led to the back exit of the stadium, he heard Ike approaching him from behind.

"Corrin, wait up."

Kamui stopped as soon as he heard his other name being called and turned around. While normally he would correct anyone else on how he would like to be called, the owner of the voice who called him only made him stop any train of thought he had.

"Y-yes?"

His heart seemed to skip a beat at the sight of the tall, muscular young man in front of him. Ike was the sort of man that seemed to impose respect just by looks alone, with his firm, yet serene semblance and fighting prowess. Ever since Kamui came into the world of Smash, he had some odd fascination towards Ike, but never got to talk to him properly before exactly because of these same reasons.

"I just wanted to say good fight back there," Ike said. "It wasn't easy."

"You think so?" Kamui asked, scratching the back of his neck. "I mean, I wouldn't say that that was my best performance, so..."

"No, it wasn't," he agreed. "But even if you were not at your best, you still gave me a hard time trying to beat you, so I'd say that it was still impressive."

So Ike knew that he wasn't giving his all in this fight after all. Kamui didn't know wherever to feel embarrassed or take that as a compliment. Didn't help that Ike said that without a hint of irony or sarcasm in his voice.

"Well, thank you, it's nice to hear this from you."

"From me?"

"Uh, yeah..." the prince stuttered, "You know… y-you're a seasoned veteran and everything, so..."

"So are you."

"I'm less veteran-y than you."

Ike let out a chuckle, which made Kamui's ears grow red. First he couldn't function in battle, now he couldn't function in normal conversation. The idea of burying himself in the ground sounded more tempting at each second.

"Corrin, I'm not near the fighter you think I am," Ike said, his sincere smile captivating the prince. "I still have a lot to learn."

"Ah..."

"What is it?"

"It's Kamui."

"Kamui?"

"My name… My name is Kamui."

"But your fighter card says-"

"I know," Kamui interrupted, a bit awkwardly. "It's just that Kamui is my birth name and how my Hoshidan family called me, so I go by this name. Corrin is the name of my almost sister."

"I see..." Ike mused, now feeling awkward for calling him by the wrong name this whole time. "I'll keep that in mind."

There was a moment of silence between them, one way too uncomfortable for Kamui's liking. He wanted to tell him that he had to go, but something inside him made him stay. Maybe it had to do with the fact that that was the longest conversation that he had with Ike since he could remember, but regardless of the reason, he still wished he could break the silence. Thankfully, Ike seemed to feel the same, because he was the first one to speak.

"Kamui, do you have any plans for now?"

"I was going to grab something to eat," Kamui said, deciding to leave out the part of stuffing his face silly with ice cream out.

"Mind if I join you?"

Well then.

"S-sure!" the young prince nodded, a big, silly smile on his face. "Let's go!"

 

\---

 

Despite the initial awkwardness between them, Kamui was surprised how their conversation kept getting a better flow as they approached the street mall that was two blocks away from the massive Brawl Stadium. The topic of past tournaments was the most prevalent one, but every now and then he would comment on how their past lives used to be, before waking up in the world of Smash. Kamui was especially interested in the stories of his past world, a world filled with fantastical beings that could transform into animals and where they worshiped only one goddess, instead of divine dragons like his used to worship.

They passed through the vibrant food court, the smell of fresh junk food mixed with the sweet aroma of sweet shops making his nostrils go wild. Even the shops from streets of Hoshido, his home, didn't have this variety. And the people! There were so many different kinds of people and creatures walking around, from the mushroom shaped Toads to the cute looking Waddle Dees, that it was hard to feel out of place. Kamui had to admit that even after two years since he came to exist this world, he still found things to get surprised at, no matter how many times he visited Gamyga Mall.

"So, Kamui, where would you like to eat?" Ike asked, a small smile appearing on his lips.

Now that was a good question. Kamui looked around, hoping to find a shop where both he and Ike could enjoy eating, since he had the feeling that the mercenary probably was not a fan of sweets, when he spotted a familiar face in the crowd.

"Corrin? Hey, Corrin, over here!" he shouted, as he waved his arm at the silver haired girl a few feet away from them.

Corrin turned around and let out a big smile as she saw Kamui waving at her, a wave of relief washing over her as she finally found a friend in the middle of the crowd. She hurried over to him and Ike, hands clasping tightly the hem of her navy blue purse and bright red eyes that showed she had something exciting to tell.

Ike couldn't help but be impressed at how similar those two looked, even after two years of knowing both prince and princess. From their wild silver hair, their sharp red eyes and delicate looking figures, it was no wonder that people often mistaken the two for twins. But maybe what was really similar between them was the goofy, innocent smile that they gave when they were excited over something. Ike couldn't help but to find that incredibly charming.

"Hey, Kamui!" she greeted and then turned to Ike. "Oh, hello Ike! Didn't expect to see you and Kamui together."

"We just came back from a battle," Ike explained.

"So what brings you here, Corrin?" Kamui asked, the fact that she was at the mall alone not going unnoticed.

"So I was hanging out with Peach and you know how she knows everything and everyone, right?" she said, earning a nod of head from both men. "Well, she mentioned that these days she had visited an amazing fortune-teller here at the mall and told me that first time clients get a discount!"

"A fortune-teller?" Kamui asked with skepticism.

"Yeah!"

"I never knew you like that kind of stuff."

"It's not like I completely believe in fortune-telling, but..."

She totally believed in stuff like fortune-telling. Kamui could see it right in her eyes.

"Well, I was originally going to check it out alone," Corrin said. "But wouldn't you two like to come with me?"

"Why didn't Peach come with you?" Ike asked.

"Ah, she was going to, but then she remembered that she had a free for all to attend at the last minute," she explained.

If he were to be honest with himself, Kamui would rather pass. Unlike Corrin, he was not very fond of the idea of fortune-telling, as he thought that most of its practitioners were huge scammers. He had Orochi, his late mother's retainer, to blame for his skepticism, as he constantly saw her playing tricks on people by using her so called fortune-telling to get them to do favors for her and very rarely actually told the truth about what her powers showed her.

However… Corrin looked so excited. In fact, it was the first time in days that he had seen her spirits high like this. Maybe it would do her some good if he went along, even if he didn't like it.

"I… guess we could go with you," Kamui said, his eyes glancing at Ike. "Are you okay with going, Ike?"

"Sure, let's go."

The two men followed Corrin to the underground floor, where she claimed the fortune-teller's esoteric shop to be located. According to Peach, the fortune-teller was called Madame Celeste, a renowned magician and a very sweet lady who brought nothing but good fortune for those who seek her. "Then what is the point in fortune telling?" Kamui thought to himself. Surely not everyone had good fortune! He wondered what Ike thought about this whole ordeal.

Unlike Kamui, Ike did believe in fortune-telling, all thanks to certain people that had met in the past, in his original world. However, he never got interested in the practice, since he would rather focus on the present and not worry about events that were still going to happen. Ike only accepted the invitation for the chance to spend more time with Kamui.

Once they arrived on the underground floor, things seemed eerily quiet compared to the bursting activity on the floor above them. There were fewer shops, fewer people and it was dimly lit, giving a more somber feeling to the overall atmosphere. No matter how much they tried to keep the mood light and inviting by placing those cute wood benches and artificially green plants on beige vases, Kamui didn't think that that floor was salvageable. They spotted Madame Celeste's shop (fittingly called Celeste's, written in glittery pink letters) and entered, a loud "DING" resonating through the small, claustrophobic place as they opened the smoky glass door and got inside.

The kind of items sold in the store shelve were... interesting, to put it lightly, ranging from growth mushroom that they were so used to seeing in the battlefield, to more exotic looking things, like this weird root plant, with a description that said "the cure for bean fever". However, despite all of that, the owner was nowhere in sight.

"Do you think that she went out for lunch?" Kamui asked.

"That can't be it," Corrin said, her fingers grazing over the thin veil of dust accumulated on the wooden shelves. "If she was, the shop would be closed."

"Maybe she had some errands to attend," Ike suggested. "It's not like anyone seems to come here, so there would be no need to-"

The mercenary was interrupted by the sound of the back door suddenly opening. The three fighters jumped by the sudden sound and turned around towards the source of it. They were greeted by a white veiled woman, her face covered, except for her intense red eyes.

"Welcome, welcome!" the woman greeted, making her way around the balcony. "I apologize for my tardiness, but things were very chaotic in the back room, and well..."

No one said a word as she approached them.

"That doesn't matter, now does it?" the woman said, now in a much cheerful voice. "Welcome to my humble shop!"

"You're Madame Celeste?" Corrin asked.

"Yes, I am," Madame Celeste nodded. "And who may you be, dear?"

"My name is Corrin," she said, one hand in her chest and the other pointing at her friends. "These are my friends, Kamui and Ike."

"My pleasure," the fortune teller said, her attention still turned to Corrin. "So, Corrin, what may I do for you today?"

"I've heard from my friend that you are an amazing fortune teller-"

"Oh, your friend is too kind!" Madame Celeste exclaimed, waving her skinny hand in a flattered way.

"She is, but anyway, I was wondering if you could read my fortune," Corrin said. "She also told me that you're offering a discount on your first reading as well."

"Absolutely, dear!" the woman said, gesturing at the door behind her. "I do all my fortune telling in the back room, where all my instruments are. We can discuss prices there as well."

"Thank you."

"And what about you boys?" Madame Celeste asked, finally paying attention to the two men awkwardly standing behind Corrin. "Would you like to have your fortune read for you as well?"

Kamui and Ike looked at each other, unsure of what to say to not hurt the woman's feelings.

"Actually… we were just accompanying Corrin," Kamui said in the end. "I don't think we-"

"Well, how about I read Corrin's fortune first and you two think it over?"

"I think that we will accept your offer," Ike said.

The fortune-teller motioned for them to follow her and they entered the back room, which managed to feel even more claustrophobic than the shop. There was a single light bulb turned on the ceiling, with the rest of the room being illuminated by thick red candles placed on two altars covered with a white cloth. At the center of the room stood a small, round table covered with a satin purple cloth and, at the far right, Kamui could also see a very antiquated looking mahogany cupboard. The smell of strong incense was overwhelming, making the atmosphere feel more oppressive than it should.

Madame Celeste politely asked Corrin to take one of the two chairs available, while she went to grab something from the cupboard. As he watched his friend take her seat, Kamui leaned over to Ike, who watched everything with crossed arms.

"Hey, do you also think this woman seems a bit strange?" Kamui whispered.

"I find it strange that she doesn't take off that veil, yes," Ike whispered back. "But her behavior isn't anything out of ordinary."

"Well, yeah, but..."

Madame Celeste came back with a deck of cards on one hand and a porcelain cup with golden lining on the other. She placed the deck on the table and gently offered the cup to Corrin, who took it with uncertainty.

"What is this?" Corrin asked.

"It's a special tea made with herbs from my homeland," Madame Celeste explained as she took the remaining seat at the opposite side. "It is said to clear the mind of those who drink, but, if you ask me, it's just a very relaxing drink."

"I don't know..."

Corrin examined the strange colored liquid. It had a red tinge that she didn't see on any other kind of tea and the smell, while not unpleasant, was nothing inviting either.

"Dear, you seem very tense," the woman insisted. "If I end up worried about your well being, then the reading might come out wrong."

Kamui rolled his eyes. This woman had the same way of sweet talking that Orochi used to have. The word "scammer" kept appearing on his mind every second that passed.

"Don't worry, this one is on the house."

"Well… okay."

Before Kamui could say anything, Corrin gulped down the strange tea. Her face immediately contorted in disgust as the overly bitter, mixed with a strange metallic feel, taste hit her and it took her every bit of strength to not spit it out. She quickly swallowed the tea before that could happen, the sensation of the hot liquid almost burning her throat.

"Ugh!"

The princess felt nauseated and feared that she might throw up. What kind of drink was that?

"He he, I know, I know, the taste is not the best," Madame Celeste giggled, amused at the girl's reaction. "The herbs are very bitter, but if I added any sweeteners, they would lose their property and we can't have that."

Corrin covered her mouth with her hand as she coughed involuntarily, gently pushing the cup away from her. Madame Celeste could have warned her of the awful taste, she would have held her breath before! Regardless, the woman seemed satisfied with that, so Corrin quickly recomposed herself, her eyes darting towards the card deck. As for Kamui, he just wanted to tell Corrin that maybe they should leave, that he didn't have a good feeling about this woman who couldn't even show her face, but he knew that Corrin would not listen to him.

Then again, it was Peach who recommended this woman. Kamui really wanted to trust the princess, as he was sure that she would never recommend people with ill intentions.

"Alright, alright," Madame Celeste sang, grabbing the deck and shuffling the cards. "This is a very simple reading. I will shuffle the cards..."

Once she was done shuffling, she started distributing them over the table in columns, placing them face down as she kept humming an unknown tune. Ike couldn't help but notice how sharp her polished black nails looked, a stark contrast with her delicate looking pale hand.

"Now, I'll will ask you to place your hands a few inches over the cards."

Corrin did as she was told, a sudden feeling of nervousness taking over her.

"Good, now take them off," the woman instructed, now being her turn to place her hands over the deck. "Now, I will draw three cards. The first card will tell you your past, the second card will tell you about the present and the third will predict your future. Are you ready?"

"Yes."

The three fighters leaned over a bit as Madame Celeste took out the first card without showing the drawing to them, letting out a hum as she examined it. Corrin really wish she could see her face, as she couldn't read her expression and had no idea what to expect just by that vague humming.

"Your first card is The Chariot," she announced, showing the card's drawing of a man conducting a red chariot being pulled by two horses, one white and one black. "This card usually means a great emotional divide and that you had to make an important decision! A decision that brought you great grief and shaped who you are today."

"That seems like my past, alright," Corrin agreed, a hint of bitterness in her voice.

Kamui had to give it to her, Madame Celeste was spot on on that reading. Either she was indeed a good fortune-teller... or she was secretly a Super Smash Bros fan and paid attention to Corrin's biography. He watched Madame Celeste place the card face up by her side and draw the second one, still unsure.

"Oh!"

"What is it?!"

"Your next card is The Tower," Madame Celeste announced, showing her the drawing of a crumbling tower. "It usually has very negative readings, as it means ruin and rupture. But it can also be positive sometimes, as it also means the start of something new. Either way, this card represents profound questioning."

Questioning was a good word for what Kamui was doing. He had to bite his lower lip to avoid blurting that to the woman in front of them. As for Corrin, she just nodded her head and waited for the next draw.

"Now, for the third and last one," the fortune-teller said, putting the second card away and drawing the one from the center.

There was a brief silence as Madame Celeste examined the card, as if time had stopped at that very moment. Ike couldn't help but wonder if he was just imagining things, but he could swear that he saw the shady fortune-teller's red eyes gleam with satisfaction. In an unconscious act, he grabbed the hilt of the sword he still carried on his hip.

"Corrin, your third card is The Hanged Man," Madame Celeste announced, a twisted glee in her voice as she showed Corrin the picture of a suffering man being dangled upside down by a rope on his ankle.

"What does that mean?" Corrin asked.

"Oh, it isn't a beneficial card, that's for sure," Madame Celeste explained, still showing the card. "It means that you will become submissive to a sentiment or situation that you are not aware of."

"But… my life has been pretty good so far," the princess said, furrowing her brow. "There's nothing-"

"Is it now?"

"Yes!"

Madame Celeste put the card down and looked at Corrin in the eye, causing the girl huge discomfort at first. She really didn't want to look her in the eyes. Those aggressive, almost predatory eyes. They looked so different now from the warm, welcoming ones that greeted her at the shop's entrance. Corrin wanted to look away, yet she kept looking the fortune-teller in the eye, almost as if there was something holding her still.

"We all have our inner demons, Corrin," the fortune-teller said, her voice somber, drawing Corrin's attention in. "Demons that manifest in various ways, be it sadness, anger, envy, regret... and they are all painful to face."

"I..."

"Because of this pain, most of us don't even want to face them," she continued. "So we hide from them, pretend that they don't exist. But they are still there and they keep eating you up until you have no choice but to find relief in surrendering."

"..."

"Do you feel like surrendering, Corrin?"

"Hey, what's gotten into you?!" Kamui exclaimed, his voice making Corrin break away from her semi-trance. "Is that how you treat your clients? Scaring them to death?"

"Oh, please, I was doing nothing of the sort," Madame Celeste denied, her voice going back to her cheerful tone. "I was just reading her fortune."

"Doesn't look like it," Ike said with crossed arms.

Corrin closed her eyes and shook her head, her mind still trying to clear itself. Kamui noticed that and put a hand on her shoulder, a gesture that asked if she was feeling alright.

"I, um..." she mumbled. "Wow, that was… something else. I don't know what to say."

"I understand, dear, this session was more intense than I thought it would be," Madame Celeste said, her voice still sounding cheerful. "So, that will be 70 Smash coins! Are you going to pay in cash or credit?"


	2. The first voice

"What an awful woman," Kamui complained as the trio exited the shop. "Seriously, Peach has a lot of explaining to do!"

"Kamui, it's okay," Corrin said, hugging her stomach. "I'm sure that Peach visited her on a better day.

"She still told you that Madame Celeste only read good fortunes."

"Maybe she thought that because Peach is a very fortunate person to begin with."

"Given her history, I'd say that Peach is both the unluckiest and luckiest person in the world," Ike commented. "I've never heard of someone who has been kidnapped and saved without suffering a scratch quite as often as her."

"I suppose that's true," she agreed, letting out a chuckle. "I'm sorry for dragging you guys to this."

"No need to apologize, Corrin," Kamui said, shooting her an understanding smile. "We all didn't know that she would turn out to be like… that."

"Well, what do you want to do now?" Ike asked, now growing hungrier as the seconds passed by.

Oh, right, he and Ike were searching for a place to eat, before they met Corrin and accompanied her in her fortune-telling adventure. Corrin took that question as her cue to leave and let Kamui spend some quality time with Ike. As both men tried to come into a consensus on where to eat, she came up with an excuse and was about to walk away, when a sudden headache hit her, followed by a feeling of weakness and a loss of balance, making her stumble forward.

"Corrin?" Ike asked as he noticed her almost tripping. "Are you alright?"

"I don't think so..." she whimpered. "My head feels really light all of a sudden."

Ike and Kamui walked Corrin to the nearest bench and had her rest there for a while. Kamui watched with worry as she breathed heavily and closed her eyes. What could have made her feel suddenly ill like this?

"Corrin, you said your head feels light, right?" Ike asked.

"Yeah… and my body feels a bit weak."

"Do you have problems with low pressure?"

"I don't think so," Corrin answered, trying to recollect any time that she had low pressure. "It's not common for me."

"How long has it been since you last ate?"

"...Hours ago."

"Maybe that's why you're feeling like this," he said, gently and offering her his hand. "Do you want to join Kamui and I?"

"Thank you, Ike," she said as she took his hand and got back on her feet. "But I don't want to be a bother. I have already taken too much of your time."

"You're not being a bother, Corrin," Kamui said in an attempt to make her feel less left out.

"He he, it's fine, really. I'm already getting better, I think it will be best if I returned to the hotel."

"Well, if you say so..." he said, still not fully convinced.

Corrin said her goodbyes to Kamui and Ike went on her way, back to the Smash Hotel. She knew how much Kamui pinned for Ike and she refused to be the third wheel in this situation, even if the invitation sounded tempting. Besides, after that whole fiasco with the fortune-teller, she was a bit ashamed of looking at them in the face, no matter how much Kamui said that it wasn't her fault that she dragged them to this terrible place. Maybe the hotel's restaurant was still open, she was as hungry as a wyvern and she still hasn't had lunch. Corrin took her phone out of her purse and decided that she would invite Peach out for lunch, but had her plans canceled as her friend didn't seem to pick up her calls.

"She must still be busy," Corrin assumed.

She decided that she would have lunch by herself. Corrin arrived at the nearest subway station and was thankful that the subway arrived at the same time she arrived on the crowded platform. Before she got inside the wagon, however, she noticed one of her colleagues already in, seated on one of the wagon's numerous vacant yellow seats, absorbed in his book reading.

Corrin decided that it wouldn't hurt to approach Richter Belmont.

"Richter?" she called him as she stepped inside. "Hey there!"

Richter looked up from his book and saw the Nohrian princess approaching him, an apparent shyness on her face. He gestured for her to take the seat by his side, making sure that nobody else would take it. Corrin nodded in appreciation and sat by his side, grateful that she wouldn't have to spend the rest of the trip back having to concentrate on standing up. She really was not used to the velocity of public transportation from this world.

"Hey, you're..." Richter said, hesitating for a moment as he tried to remember her name. "You're Corrin, right?"

"Yeah, that's right," Corrin said with a nod of her head. "You coming back from a fight?"

"No, not really," Richter answered, his voice taking awkward pauses as he saw Corrin tilting her head. "I was… running some errands, so to speak. My fight happens tonight."

The loud jingle announced that the doors were closing and the subway took off.

"Oh, I see."

"What about you? I can see from your clothes that you haven't had any fights today," he said, pointing to her more casual attire. "I have to say, I'm not used to seeing you in anything, but your battle armor."

"My next fight will be tomorrow, so today I had the day off and felt no need to put on my armor," Corrin explained. "Today was Kamui's turn to fight."

"Kamui?"

"My almost brother… You know, guy me."

Richter nodded, but was still left confused. He knew about how some Smashers had two or more versions of themselves, but that still left him incredibly confused on how that worked. He could only wonder how she took it when she first saw her male half.

"So, where are you heading now?" he asked.

"Back to the hotel, I'm really hoping that the restaurant is still open by the time I get back."

"Ah, same thing here," Richter sighed. "My day has been so busy, I haven't had time to eat anything yet."

"Just be careful to not faint from the lack of food, heh," she chuckled.

"I will," he gave a small smile.

"Hey, you wanna join me?"

"Sure, why not? I was going to have lunch all by myself anyway."

Ten minutes later, the subway arrived at their destination. Corrin and Richter kept making small talk on their way to the Smash hotel, Richter's subtle awkwardness not passing by unnoticed by her. She figured that talking about what he thought about the world of Smash would break the ice and she was right. Turns out Richter came from a world with very different technology and way of life, so he was still having troubles getting used to it, not helped by the fact that he had only woken up in their current world three months ago.

Case in point, he couldn't stop staring at the cars on the streets and wondering how they weren't being pulled by horses like the chariots from his home.

They arrived at the grand entrance of the Smash hotel, being greeted by the Mii security guards as the thick glass doors slid opened to them. They crossed the large hall, heading towards the left wing of the hotel's ground floor, where one of it's restaurants was located. Corrin greeted her fellow Smashers that she came across and soon they found themselves at the entrance of the restaurant. She was relieved to see that it was still operating, even if it was already in the middle of the afternoon. Corrin and Richter quickly served themselves from the buffet and sat on one of the various empty, round tables.

However, before Richter could even start eating, the phone on his pocket started to vibrate, making him jump in surprise and hold back a curse. He excused himself to Corrin as he took the device that has been giving him headaches lately and stared at the screen in cold sweat as he saw who was the caller.

"What do you want?" he angrily answered.

Corrin was taken aback but the sudden shift in attitude from him. She could hear the frenetic voice at the other side of the phone, but couldn't quite figure it out who it belonged to. Whoever they were, they sure was getting on Richter's nerves, as he kept saying that he was having lunch and that he would "deal with that" later. She hesitantly ate her vegetarian chowder, feeling a bit too awkward to fully enjoy her meal.

Poor Richter seemed so stressed.

"Fiiiine, fine," Richter gave a sigh of defeat. "I'll buy something to eat on the way. Just… hold still and don't do anything stupid."

"Is everything alright?" Corrin asked as she saw him turning his phone off.

"Sorry, Corrin, but I'll have to leave," he said, his voice in a defeated tone.

"Well, okay… but are you sure you are okay with leaving without eating anything?"

"No, but if I stay, I won't hear the end of it."

Richter grabbed one of the fried dumplings from his plate and said his goodbyes to Corrin. She watched him leave in quick and heavy steps, still confused over what had just happened.

"Oh, well..."

Looks like she was all alone again. Corrin sighed and took another bite on her vegetarian chowder, mindlessly watching the restaurant's staff walk past the empty tables and start packing everything up. She didn't know if it was her impression, but her head seemed to be getting heavier as the seconds passed by.

It was probably her hunger.

The fortune-teller's words came back to her mind all of a sudden. She had no idea why, but they just wouldn't stop bothering her. Maybe it was because of the foreboding way she spoke, but Corrin couldn't stop thinking about them.

_You will become submissive to a sentiment or situation that you are not aware of._

Of course she wouldn't, what nonsense.

_Do you feel like surrendering, Corrin?_

What a crazy woman.

Corrin took another bite.

\---------

Night soon arrived and to say that Corrin felt exhausted would be an understatement. She had no idea why, but after she finished lunch, a sudden feeling of tiredness started to grow on her to the point that she went on with the rest of her day on auto mode. She sluggishly opened the door to her room as if that was a difficult task and dragged her feet to her bed, only ever stopping to turn on the light by pressing the nearest switch. She felt bliss as she kicked off her short length boots away, her sore feet welcoming the sensation of touching the soft moss green carpet, before belly flopping on her cream colored bed without a care in the world. It wasn't even 20 PM, but she was ready to call it a day.

No, wait, she still had to take a shower.

"Urrrgh," she groaned.

Maybe she could post pone the shower, it's not like she was dirty or sweaty from an intense day of battles. The softness of her single bed also did not help and it made the task of getting up all the more difficult. She would get up in five minutes, she just had to rest her eyes for a bit. So after tossing aside her headband, she blinked her eyes one, two, three times, her consciousness slipping more and more at each blink.

And then the world around her became pitch black.

Now that normally wouldn't be a problem, for the world to become pitch black. That's what happened when people closed their eyes and drifted off into a deep sleep.

Except that Corrin's eyes were not closed and that she was very much awake.

"What..."

Corrin immediately sat up, her heart pumping up as confusion took over her. No matter where she looked, all she saw darkness. Even the sounds from the busy city life outside seemed to cease existing, it was as if the world around her stopped existing. Fear soon took over confusion, a fear so strong that it froze her in place and silenced her voice. No matter how much she wanted to scream, no sound came out from her mouth.

What was going on? Could that be a nightmare? No, Corrin was sure that she was not asleep. Whatever was going on, she was sure that it wasn't twisted dream that kept her stuck like that.

_Corrin…_

Suddenly, she heard a voice calling out for her. The voice was deep and commanding, but somehow it was also gentle and warm.

Little by little, she started to regain control of her body, starting from her being able to move her head and neck, going all the way down to her legs and feet. Corrin got up and looked around, searching for the owner of the voice. She saw the blurred figure of what she assumed to be a man with long, dark hair wearing a strange, indiscernible silver helmet. The figure looked like it came out from a painting that had water spilled over it, but she could still recognize that it was a man calling for her.

"Corrin, come here…" the man called, extending an arm to her.

As if in a trance, she obliged. Corrin walked towards the foreign, yet inviting, man, her steps slow and sluggish. She didn't care if the world around her was pitch black, she just wanted to reach this man. And she was so close to him… so…

Without an explanation, Corrin's mind came back to reality. The man in front of her disappeared and, in his place, the view of the city lights appeared before her.

She gasped as she found herself at the edge of the room's balcony, her body leaning forward on the marble wall. The loud noises of the city's night life came back and they overwhelmed here, throwing her off balance. Corrin stumbled backwards, getting as far away as possible from the balcony's edge, the realization that she was almost jumping off dawning on her. She could have died right there and she wouldn't even know, and all because she saw a strange man calling out for her.

Still shaken up from the frightening experience, Corrin decided that suddenly that shower would do her wonders in helping her relax.

\---------

"Kamui, is everything alright?" Ike asked when he realized that his friend started to space out again.

"Hm? Oh… I am," he answered, a bit distracted. "Sorry, was lost in thoughts."

Ike let out a hum and just kept on walking, not really sure how to continue the conversation. As much as he wanted to grow closer to Kamui, he hated how bad he was at conversations. So far, Kamui was the one starting the topics and carrying the conversation, but as the evening approached and they headed back to the hotel, Kamui seemed to grow quieter and an awkward silence fell upon them.

And to think that they were having such a pleasant afternoon before…

"I guess I've been thinking about what that fortune-teller had said to Corrin," Kamui confessed.

"Why?"

"Well, in a way, Corrin and I are the same person."

"And?"

"I was wondering… do you think that her reading might affect me too?"

"You actually believe what she said?" Ike asked, raising an eyebrow at him, who was quick to deny it.

"It's not that I believe her, but that whole talk about inner demons kind of freaked me out," he explained. "We have lived the same life until we reached a point where we diverged from each other. I guess I was just wondering if our supposed inner demons would be the same as well."

"Don't you two talk to each other about this?"

"No? Why would we?"

"Aren't you curious about what happened in the path that she had chosen for herself?" Ike asked, surprised.

"I am! But..." Kamui hesitated. "We just don't talk about our past with each other."

"Why?"

"Corrin would be upset."

"I see..."

Ike decided that he wouldn't press the issue further, as that was clearly a sore subject. He didn't understand why, as if he were to encounter some alternate version of himself who decided to side with his enemy, he would be very much curious about why he made the decision he made, but he was not Kamui and he probably wouldn't understand that side of his.

They arrived at the entrance of the hotel and Kamui just couldn't wait to get back to his room, as he desperately needed a shower to get rid of all dirt from today's battles. Once they approached the large lounge, both men stopped since their path diverged there, with Corrin wanting to go back to his room, while Ike still had to meet Pit, who wouldn't stop nagging him about how he wanted revenge on their game of Mario Kart 8.

"Today was fun!" Kamui said, sounding a bit more cheerful. "Thanks, Ike, really."

"No problem," Ike said with a small smile. "Listen, tomorrow my fights will happen only in the evening, so I was thinking about doing some training in the morning. Do you want to come?"

"Sure!" he excitedly agreed. "I'd love to!"

"Alright, meet me at the hotel's entrance tomorrow at ten am. I'll see you tomorrow."

Ike waved his goodbyes and went on his way, not realizing the apparent blush that that crept on Kamui's very pale face. Gods, he couldn't stop smiling like an idiot and he had to restrain himself from skipping away like a teenage girl in love who had just had her first kiss.

"So this is the point I have reached, uh," he thought to himself as he made his way to the corridors on the right wing of the hotel, where the elevators that led to his room's floor were.

He couldn't wait for tomorrow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No, you may not ask who was on the phone with Richter. They are a surprise tool that will help us later.


	3. Pairing up

Corrin let out a yawn as she left her hotel room, the memories from last night still vivid on her mind. She tried to get a good night of sleep, but the blurred man from her vision wouldn't stop haunting her thoughts and so she probably had slept at best for about five hours before she could see the breaking dawn through the curtains. The man wasn't threatening, despite his blurred out appearance; quite the contrary, Corrin couldn't have felt more welcomed by him. What scared her was not the vision of his presence, but what she almost did to herself by following him.

Had she leaned forward a bit more, Corrin would have fallen off.

An overwhelming feeling of dread took over her as she started to fantasize about her body hitting the hard concrete, blood splattering on the floor as innocent people watched, their expressions a mix of shock, terror and confusion. What a terrible way to go would that be, Corrin could only imagine if it would make a difference, since Kamui was the real-

Speak of the devil.

"Oh, Kamui," Corrin called as she saw her friend standing in front of the chrome elevator doors. "Good morning."

Kamui turned to her, his face certainly looking more well rested than hers. There was a certain glow to him that made her quite envious inside, especially since both she and he were not morning people to begin with. So while she had a perfect excuse for looking bad so early in the morning, Kamui still woke up flawless despite being the same as her.

"Good morning, Corrin," he greeted, his voice sounding uncharacteristically cheerful for that time in the morning. "What are you doing up so early?"

"I can ask the same for you."

He shot her the brightest grin she had seen in a long time, which made Corrin all the more curious about what good news he had in store.

"Well, you won't believe this, but Ike had invited me yesterday to join him in one of his morning training," Kamui happily announced, earning a surprised gasp and a smile from her.

"No way!" she exclaimed, her smile growing bigger as he nodded. "That's great, I'm so happy for you!"

"Yes!"

A loud "ping" announced that the elevator had arrived and both of them walked in. Kamui just went on with telling her about his day with Ike yesterday and how happy he was that the veteran he admired so much wanted to spend more time with him. Corrin just listened to his rambles with a smile on her face, genuinely happy for the hope her friend had in his crush. It almost made her forget about her own worried for a moment, but that wouldn't take too long. As soon as they exited the elevator and headed towards the restaurant to have some breakfast, Kamui decided to turn the conversation towards her.

"So, Corrin," Kamui started, seemingly starting to come down from his high. "What are you doing up so early? We know we're both terrible at waking up at this hour."

She stopped to ponder for a brief moment, asking herself if she should tell him about the strange vision that she had last night. She wondered if he would think that she was crazy and needed to get some help, or if he would become very worried and still think that she needed help. Either way, Corrin did not like any of those options.

"I couldn't sleep well," she lied, her eyes refusing to look at his. "I guess I'm a bit nervous with today's fight."

"Can't blame you, I wouldn't want to fight Bayonetta."

Oh, today she had to fight against Bayonetta, that had completely passed over her head.

"Yeah, Bayonetta can be pretty scary," Corrin said.

They arrived at the restaurant, which was already busting with activity, even if Corrin thought it was too early for that. The smell of freshly baked eggs caught her attention and made her turn her head towards the aisle with the baked goods, but got intimidated by the long line of people, no thanks to a certain pink puffball clogging the table and taking all the food for himself. She and Corrin decided to go to the table where the fruits and cereals were, since it was the one with the least amount of people clogging the space.

As they approached the table, Kamui noticed a very sleepy Ike entering the restaurant thanks to how close it was to the front door. Corrin couldn't help but muffle a giggle as she saw her friend's eyes practically sparkle at the sight of the Smash veteran.

"Ike, good morning!" Kamui enthusiastically greeted, making him turn towards him in surprise.

"G-good morning," Ike stuttered, rubbing his tired eyes in hopes he would appear less sleepy. "You are up even earlier than I thought you would."

"Ah, well, I didn't want to risk oversleeping and keeping you waiting."

"Heh."

It was then when Ike noticed Corrin by Kamui's side, helping herself with a plate of apples and a bow of cereal. She turned to him and gave him a polite smile, as if she didn't want to get in the way.

"Good morning, Corrin," Ike greeted.

"Morning."

"Are you feeling better?"

Corrin blinked in confusion, almost dropping the plate and the bow in the process. Did Ike know about what had happened last night? She asked herself how in the world he could have known, since she didn't tell anyone yet and had no plans on doing so.

"What… do you mean?" she asked.

"You know, from yesterday," he explained, a bit awkwardly. "You weren't feeling well at the mall, so..."

"Oh, that! Yes, I'm fine, by the time I arrived at the hotel, I was feeling better."

"That's good to hear."

"Anyway, I've heard that you two are going to train after breakfast," Corrin said, her voice in a teasing tone. "I hope you don't break him too much, Ike."

"Hey!"

"Heh, I wouldn't worry about that too much, Kamui can be quite difficult to deal with."

"Thank you!" Kamui exclaimed. "At least Ike puts faith in me, Corrin."

Corrin suppressed a giggle and waited for the other two men to grab their food, Kamui doing like her and serving himself with a plate of pears and a bowl of cereal, while Ike preferred to wait until Kirby was expelled from the other food table so he could get some baked eggs and bacon. Once everyone was settled, they managed to find an empty table with relative ease and proceeded to eat and chat.

Though, in reality, the only ones chatting were Kamui and Ike. Corrin seemed oddly quiet, preferring to eat her breakfast while she watched them, only ever speaking if either one of them asked her something. Despite Kamui's happiness, he couldn't help but worry about the sudden shift in his friend's mood, though he had the suspicion that it was because Corrin was feeling like a third wheel. And while that was partially true, there were two things occupying her mind at that moment, one of them being her fight against Bayonetta.

The other was the worry that the strange man from last night would appear to her again. Whatever he was, hallucination or not, Corrin couldn't help but fear the idea that he would return to her. Yet, despite all of that, there was a hidden desire to see him again, to follow his calling.

Kamui looked at his sister again, eating while lost in thoughts. He wondered just how nervous she was about her fight against Bayonetta.

\---------

"Ike, Corrin, hey! Sorry to keep you waiting!"

To say that Kamui's mood soured from how he had woken up would be an understatement. He was so happy that he would have a training session with Ike alone, only to have his hopes shattered once once they arrived at the training gym and Ike told him that Pit and Dark Pit were going to join them. It wasn't as if he hated the angels, far from it, he had no strong opinions regarding them, but he would have enjoyed it more if it was just the two of them.

So when he saw Pit and Dark Pit approaching them, with Pit dragging a reluctant Dark Pit by the arm, he couldn't bring himself to genuinely smile at them. He just hoped that they believed in his fake one.

"Don't worry, Pit," Ike reassured. "You are not late, we have arrived not even a minute ago."

"Pit-stain, let go of me!" Dark Pit exclaimed, pulling his arm away as soon as they stopped. "it's already bad enough that you dragged me here, at least let me walk on my own."

Apparently, Dark Pit was there against his will, not that it mattered, since Pit was as stubborn as a mule and wouldn't stop annoying his darker counterpart to go train with them. He gave Dark Pit a look of sympathy, who seemed to have acknowledged him with a slight nod.

"Alright, so how do you guys wanna do this?" Pit asked. "Are we practicing a free-for-all, or..."

"I was wondering if you guys were up for practicing team battles," Ike said, which caught everyone's attention. "There's rarely an opportunity to practice this type of battle, since we all mostly train alone or with another person, so I thought it would be a nice change of pace."

It was then when Kamui realized what was going on, when he saw Pit immediately choosing Dark Pit as his partner and dragging him towards the gym, leaving both him and Ike behind. Kamui saw Ike giving him a mischievous look, which only made things better.

"You ready to give them a sound thrashing?" Ike said as he put a hand on Kamui's shoulder.

"Ha, am I ever! Let's got!"

The two entered the expansive gym and headed towards the balcony, where Pit and Dark Pit waited for them. Ike told the receptionist that they had a training room reserved in his name and the small Mii responded with a nod and guided them to the second floor, where Smasher exclusive training rooms were located. Kamui realized that Ike had reserved a training room that simulated the Wii Fit Studio stage, which he was grateful for, since that was one of the least distracting ones with its minimalist interior design. It also had a big mirror that covered up an entire wall, which was great for practicing moves.

It was decided by the group that they would practice quick two minute battles, with Ike and Kamui as one team and Pit and Dark Pit as the other one. There was one weak complaint from the dark angel's part about Pit being a pain in the butt as a partner, but he quickly dismissed his own commentary with a sigh and a "whatever".

Once everything was settled, their training begun. Whatever bad mood Kamui was in quickly dissipated as he and Ike started working together to take down the angels, though it was mostly because he was in the same team as Ike, because as the battle went on, both prince and mercenary found themselves having trouble dealing with the coordinated attacks coming from their opponents. For all the bickering Pit and Dark Pit got into, when it came to working as a team, those two knew what they were doing, especially when it came to changing between shooting arrows and doing melee attacks.

Kamui gasped as he saw Pit locking Ike on a series of slashes from his double blades. He blocked Dark Pit's electroshock arm before it could send him flying away and jumped off from the platform, changing his arm into a vicious dragon fang and landing a precise strike on Pit's back once he landed on the ground. Pit yelled in pain as he was knocked away, but Kamui paid more attention to the sigh of relief that Ike gave as he got up after being freed from the brutal assault.

"I forgot how good Pit and Dark Pit were when working together," Ike admitted, sheepishly.

"Well, we are only going to get better by challenging the best," Kamui said.

"Heh, you're right."

One hour and a half later, the four smashers decided to rest from their training. Pit offered everyone some sandwiches that he brought just in case he got hungry, which everyone accepted eagerly. The sat on the floor, with their backs turned to the mirror on the wall, bodies dripping with sweat, but still with an overwhelming satisfaction of finally finishing their work out.

"Gotta admit, this wasn't half bad," Dark Pit said, taking a bite from his cheese sandwich. "Sorry that we bodied you two, though."

"Bodied us?" Kamui asked, fake offended. "Maybe in the beginning, but Ike and I got way better in the end. If this was a real battle, we would have won."

"Keep telling yourself that," he smirked.

"But seriously, you guys work really well together!"

"You think so?" Pit asked, a silly smile on his face. "Believe it or not, we don't do a lot of training together, it just comes naturally to us."

"You guys must be close then," Kamui said.

"Ha, believe it or not, Pit tried to kill me the first time he saw me," Dark Pit said, earning a confused look from both Ike and Kamui. "Well, I did kick him in the stomach first, but..."

"You're making me sound like the bad guy here!" Pit exclaimed, fully turning his attention to his counterpart. "You were wreaking havoc!"

"I kicked you in the stomach, but helped you on taking out Pandora later," he crossed his arms. "I did nothing wrong!"

They soon became too engrossed in their heated discussion and forgot that Kamui and Ike were still there. Realizing that it was best not to interrupt an argument that they had no involvement in, Kamui turned his attention only to Ike.

"They really do look like brothers," Kamui whispered to Ike, a half smile forming on his face. "They kind of remind me of my own."

"I didn't have brothers, but I did grow up with two that wouldn't stop bickering," Ike said, leaning his back against the mirrored wall. "I guess it's a brotherly thing."

"Don't you have any siblings?"

"I had a younger sister, her name was Mist," he said with bittersweet smile. "She was as cute as a button, but tough as nails. We never bickered or fought, though. She was too patient with me."

"I know what you mean."

"You had sisters?"

"Four, actually," Kamui said, a hint of homesickness hitting him. "I love them all, but two of them… Well, it's complicated, but I stopped talking to them as often."

"Oh, right, because you had to choose between two families, right?"

"Yeah, but you see..."

They continued their conversation as if nothing else in the world mattered, bonding over family ties and homesickness. Kamui and Ike barely realized that Pit and Dark Pit were ready to jump at each other's throat and decided to take it out on the battlefield once again.

\---------

"I swear, he is driving me crazy!"

"Hm, I bet he is."

"Don't you feel the same?"

"I would, if I didn't already filter out most of the nonsense that he says."

"I don't know how you manage, Bayonetta."

Bayonetta rolled her eyes and continued walking as she continued hearing the incessant complaints from Richter. She had a fight against Corrin scheduled that would happen in fifteen minutes and planned on taking her sweet time to get to the stadium, but due to the unfortunate circumstance of meeting Richter halfway, she found herself having to speed up her steps so she would get rid of him sooner.

If only they weren't working together, Bayonetta would have ignored him completely, as she did with the majority of the other Smashers.

However, since they were on a stupid mission together, she knew that he would eventually have something of interest to tell her. So she put up with his annoying (although valid) complaints while she made her way to the stadium.

"By the way, have you managed to get any lead on her whereabouts?" Richter asked, for the first time focusing on something other than this bellyaching.

"Unfortunately, no," Bayonetta sighed. "This city is so big that it might as well be its own country. It's hard to find just about anyone here."

"Tell me about it," he agreed. "I've never been to somewhere this big before."

"Oh, I definitely have been to big cities, but that doesn't make this one any less big."

As if answering to her wishes, the sight of the big, gray stadium that had all of the original stages created for the new tournament appeared before her as they approached her destination. With a quick "goodbye" and "see you later", the witch was quick to walk away from her colleague, a smile of relief forming on her perfectly red lips. She saw the crowded line of fans waiting at the entrance, tickets in hand to see her fight live, so before anyone could spot her, Bayonetta quickly turned right and took the path that would lead her to the back entrance, where only fighters and staff could access.

Oh, how she despised crowds, no matter how much they fed her ego when they cheered for her.

She entered the building, strutting with confident steps as she mentally visualized the possible battle outcomes. Her opponent would be Corrin, though she couldn't remember exactly which one she would be fighting, so she had to possible scenarios in her head based on how they usually fought. They boy Corrin was reckless and aggressive, something that didn't often shown up when he was outside of the battlefield, so she would have to focus more on dodging and taunting him to make him lose his focus. Now, the girl… one could say that she was no less aggressive than her male counterpart, but she was more defensive in battle. Either Bayonetta threw her off balance in the beginning of battle, or she would have problems later trying to get close to her. If she were to be honest, Bayonetta found her much more annoying to deal with, since she had less fun that way.

And since today was not her day, Bayonetta soon found the girl Corrin waiting inside the fighter preparation room, seated on one of the wooden red benches and taking a sip from her bottle of water. Their eyes met as Corrin heard the door opening, a brief awkward silence filling the air, before the girl decided to look downward.

"Hello, little princess," Bayonetta greeted.

"Please don't call me that," Corrin frowned. "You know that I can't stand it."

"I'll cal you by your name when you grow up."

"I'm already an adult."

"That's not what I mean and you know it."

"Bayonetta, I don't want to argue," Corrin sighed, taking another sip from her bottle. "Let's just… have our fight and go on our way."

Bayonetta shrugged her shoulders and sat on the opposite side of the room. She definitely preferred going against the boy Corrin. It felt like an eternity until one of the Miis that worked at the stadium arrived and called their names, telling them that it was time to battle on the New Donk City stage.

Corrin took a deep breath and got up. Time to get that over with.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Despite their constant bickering, I do like to imagine that Pit and Dark Pit see each other as brothers. I really like making them appear as cameos in my Smash stories, they can be really fun.


	4. Close encounter of the second kind

**The winner is… Bayonetta!**

Corrin clapped her hands in a show of sportsmanship as the Umbra witch posed for the cheering crowd, even though her mind was miles away. She had just suffered a humiliating defeat (though if one were to ask Bayonetta, she wouldn’t be able to hide how close the fight was) and all she wanted was to get away from Bayonetta. Both women exited the stadium without looking at each other in the face and went on their separate ways. Corrin could only wonder when the tension between them would stop, but she did not want to think about that any harder, not when she had other things occupying her mind. 

The warm sun felt very welcoming after spending an hour inside the cold building, though the chilly autumn weather did not do her any favors. She saw Kamui trotting towards her, his red cheeks showing that he had been at it for quite a while, and forced a smile as he approached, despite being surprised to see him there. 

“Hey, so how did the fight go?” Kamui asked as he tried to catch his breath.

“I lost, but it was a close call,” Corrin explained. “You know how it is going against Bayonetta.”

“Tell me about it,” he groaned. “I’m sick of seeing her win so easily.”

“Careful now, or she might hear you,” she teased.

“Gods, no! I definitely don’t want that.”

“We still have a good winning streak, despite all of that,” Corrin said in fake optimism. “One lousy defeat from her won’t hurt us too badly.”

“I guess so,” Kamui sighed, yet quickly regained his cheerful disposition. “Hey, I was wondering, Robin had just invited me over for coffee and asked me if you wanted to come along. Are you interested?”

“Sure, let’s go.”

Anything to distract my head, she mentally added.

As it turned out, the place where Robin invited them for coffee was about three squares away from the stadium and since Kamui was nearby when he finished his training with Ike, he wouldn’t need to go out of his way to invite Corrin. They made their way towards the appointed coffee shop without any hurry, chatting about Corrin’s latest fight and on how she could improve for the next one, basking in on the warm sunlight that hasn’t shown up in days. Little by little, Corrin was forgetting about her anxieties and frustrations, with Kamui’s company and the promise of a warm cup of coffee brightening up her mood.

They stopped by the last traffic light before the street where the coffee shop was and waited. The street itself was pretty large and busy, with many cars zooming by, almost disorienting her. No matter how much time passed in this world, she didn’t think that she could get used to how fast cars could go by. She was pretty sure that most of them were over the speed limit, but what did she know in the end? Kamui pressed the button by their side, signaling that they wanted to cross, and so both of them waited for their turn.

The cars continued to zoom by, the mere sight of them becoming more and more mesmerizing to Corrin as time passed by. She heard Kamui complain by her side about how long it was taking, but his voice seemed to increasingly fade away, until it became nothing but white noise. Was it taking too long, though? Corrin couldn’t tell. All she could do was look forward, towards the cars and let her mind wander miles away.

The world around Corrin suddenly was engulfed by darkness once again. 

W-what…?

A sense of desperation started to grow as she looked by her side and realized that Kamui was nowhere in sight. The buildings, the traffic light, the cars, the people, everything was gone, leaving her to stand all alone in a sea of darkness. Her body was frozen stiff, unresponsive to her will to move, not that moving would do her any favors, since she had no idea what to do. She tried calling Kamui, but just like the rest of the sound around her, her voice fell silent. Corrin couldn’t move and couldn’t scream, no matter how hard she tried. All she could do was stay still, looking forward, where the cars were zooming by.

What was going on? Why was that happening to her? She wanted to escape from that empty nightmare, but had no idea how. Corrin tried stepping backwards once again, to no avail, her feet were stuck to the ground.

_“Corrin…”_

The girl was startled by the voice that called her. It was not strong, firm and masculine like the last one, instead, that voice was very gentle and feminine, almost familiar to her. Corrin saw the shape of a woman wearing a long white dress at the distance, her glowing presence almost being a warm welcome to that pitch black world. The woman invoked no fear within her, on the contrary, Corrin could only wonder why she stood so far away from her. 

_“Child, what are you doing there, in the middle of the street?”_ the woman said, extending her arms to her. _“Come over here, before you get hit by a vehicle.”_

Was she in the middle of the street? Maybe she was, after all, with her seeing nothing but black, she had no idea where she stood. All Corrin wanted to do was run towards the gentle woman’s arms and escape that hellish void. The woman’s words seemed to break the spell that kept Corrin bound and she could move freely again. 

_“Come to me, Corrin...”_

She took two steps forward, ready to run towards the woman, as she certainly did not to get run over and die.

“...rrin? CORRIN?!”

She felt her shoulders being pulled back with force by two strong hands, making her mind snap back to reality. There was a loud honking sound as she saw a scarlet car zoom in by her, too close for comfort, the gust of wind knocking her back and making her bump into Kamui’s chest, who then held her close to him as if it was his own life at stake. She looked around her and realized that there was a small crowd watching them, their faces full of concern. 

There was no time to wonder what was going on, though, as Kamui turned Corrin around in order to face him, his expression showing a mixture of intense worry and anger.

“What are you doing, Corrin?!” he snapped at her. “Do you have a death wish?!”

“What… do you mean?” Corrin asked, her mind still a bit foggy. “I was waiting to cross the street, no?”

“You walked into the street right as that car was about to pass by!” Kamui exclaimed, pointing at the pedestrian’s crossing. “If I weren’t there to pull you away, you would have been hit by that car!”

That woman tried to get her killed, just like the man before her. 

“So… I was tricked again?” she whispered. “This isn’t good...”

She should have known better, she should have known that it was a trap. Yet, despite all of that, she felt like she was way too willing to believe in her own hallucinations.

“What was that?”

Regardless of what was happening, she would not worry Kamui. He was already shaken up by what had just happened, Corrin couldn’t even begin to imagine how he would react if she told him the cause of her almost getting herself killed. She should tell someone what was going on with her, but it was for the best that Kamui wasn’t this someone.

“It’s nothing,” Corrin shook her head. “I’m sorry for worrying you, Kamui. I became too distracted, so thanks for looking out for me.”

Kamui was not fully convinced by her answer, but she seemed too distraught by her near death experience for him to lecture her more or ask her what she meant with being tricked again. His expression softened up and crossed an arm over her shoulders, bringing her closer to him.

“Hey, you alright?” he asked, softly.

“Huh? I’m fine now,” she answered, avoiding eye contact. “Why do you ask?”

“You’ve been feeling down this morning and only got worse now.”

“It’s nothing, I woke up like this.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, you know how it is,” she lied. “I woke up in a bad mood, that’s all. I’m sure it will pass once we meet with Robin.”

Kamui decided to not press the issue any further and let go of her. The traffic light finally signaled that they could cross and so they did, the sight of the coffee shop appearing before them once they got to the other side of the street, since it seemed to be hidden in the midst of the tall and imposing buildings that looked like they were close to squashing the small establishment. Robin had told through message that it would be easy to spot the shop since it was the only house in the middle of the big cooperate buildings, so Kamui was surprised to see that she was right. 

The coffee shop, named Auroro’s Cafe, was a rather quaint looking shop, with it’s pastel yellow walls, flower fence and a big, smoky, dark window covering most of its front. They both saw Robin getting up from one of the tables set outside and walking towards them to great them.

“Kamui, Corrin, hello,” she greeted, politely. “Was it too hard to get here?”

“No, not at all,” Kamui said with a smile. “When you said that it was by Fils-Amie street, I thought that we would get lost a lot more because of all the buildings, but it was very easy to find ourselves here.”

“This area only looks intimidating, it’s not nearly as complicated as it looks,” Robin nodded, gesturing for them to follow her. “Come on in, the coffee here is great!”

“And?”

“And what?”

“Come on, Robin, you don’t usually invite us over coffee to just gossip,” he smirked. “What do you want?”

Robin let out an embarrassed chuckle, which was enough of a confirmation that she had matters to discuss with both him and Corrin. In those two years that they knew the tactician, Robin was not the kind of person that invited friends and acquaintances to chat mindlessly and with no purpose. She always had something in mind and today was no different.

“Well, I wanted to discuss the next tournament after this one’s over,” Robin admitted, finger twirling a lock of her white pigtails. “Rob and I have been thinking about it for a while, since it’s going to be a double tournament, so I wanted your opinions on some things.”

“Sure!”

“Um, yeah, sure...”

Robin tilted her head at Corrin, curious over why her friend seemed so down. She had been so engrossed with talking to Kamui that she hadn’t realized that Corrin had been silent that entire time. She wondered if she was just imagining things.

“Well then...” she said, a bit hesitant because of Corrin. “Let’s go?”

\---------

“Ike, thank you so much for helping me out, I really appreciate it,” Whitney thanked, gesturing a thumbs up gesture to the mercenary.

“No problem.”

Ike dusted off the dirt from his gloves as soon as he finished placing the last yoga mattress on top of the mattress pile. He turned around to examine the studio room, a tinge of relief on his face as he realized that they were almost done. 

When Whitney, the Wii Fit Trainer, came up to Ike a few hours ago and asked for help in prepping up the room from the studio that she and her husband had recently managed to buy, Ike expected that he would be moving a few boxes, maybe even helping setting a big mirror on a wall, minor things. He did not expect that he would be helping with cleaning, moving sound equipment, pilling up mattresses and other tasks. He saw the treadmill that he help her bring in at the corner of the room and wondered for the fifth time in a span of three hours why a yoga classroom would need a treadmill, but Whitney would just reassure him that it was for personal reasons. 

Thank the goddess that they were almost done.

“Seriously, I don’t know how to thank you enough,” Whitney continued, taking a sip from her water bottle. “With Will taking over my fights today, I would have to set up this room all by myself and wouldn’t be able to finish it by today.”

“Why did you need it to be finished by today, anyway?”

“I told my students that from now on I would give yoga classes in this studio, instead of Alloy gym,” the yoga instructor explained as she started tweaking with the boombox to test the audio. “And I wouldn’t cancel out classes just because of this minor inconvenience, so-”

“Minor inconvenience is an understatement,” Ike said, scratching his head. “This room looked like a post-apocalyptic scenario a few hours ago.”

“Good thing it doesn’t look anymore! I can focus on the rest of the studio later, but the essential is already taken care of!”

“So who is coming anyway?”

As if answering to Ike’s question, the room’s cream colored door suddenly swung open, revealing an eager Princess Peach done a more sporty pink outfit instead of her usual prim dress and a high ponytail. Ike almost didn’t recognize her as she walked inside, only to stop in confusion over the almost empty room. 

“Huh, I could swear that I was late,” Peach commented, setting her pink bag on the floor. “Where is everyone, Whitney?”

“You’re almost two hours early, Peach,” Whitney said as she continued adjusting the boombox. “Didn’t I tell you that I moved the lesson schedule?”

“I don’t think you did.”

“I sent you a message.”

“I probably didn’t see it then...”

Ike shook his head as he saw the princess walk towards the pile of mattresses and sit on them, her feet dangling while she watched Whitney make the final adjustments. It was clear that Peach would stay until their classes started, so he went back to helping out Whitney with pilling up the empty boxes on the corner of the room, so Whitney could throw them away when she had more time.

“I must say, I’m really happy for you, Whitney!” Peach said. “Managing to buy a studio in such little time is not easy.”

“Well, when you and your husband both have two jobs, it can be a bit easier,” Whitney chuckled. “Still, finding this place was a nightmare, I’m just glad we can finally run this place like Will and I planned.”

“And how is Will?”

“Stressed thanks to this new tournament,” the trainer chuckled. “He’s a big softy, no wonder I end up fighting most of our battle in tournaments. But it’s good that he is being forced to toughen up, because...”

Their chatting went on and on as Ike continued organizing boxes, not all of that interested in their gossiping. He was not one for mindless chatter, which he considered both a good and bad thing, since he never felt comfortable talking about other people behind their backs, but it also made him come of as rather anti-social. He wondered if he should exercise conversing with people about mindless things more often, especially now that he realized when hanging out with Kamui that he depended too much on other people to carry out conversations. He was a wonderful man, but Ike couldn’t depend on his good will too always starts conversations. 

His mind wandered off to Kamui for a moment, thinking about those lovely features and that smile that had captivated him for a long time. Ike was happy that he was managing to get closer to him, despite the awkward start and how he needed a fighting competition to use as an excuse to approach him, not to mention how he accidentally called him by the wrong name, despite him not knowing any better and thinking that both he and Corrin just went by the same name. 

One thought led to another and it was then when Ike remembered that Peach was the very person who recommended that sketchy fortune teller to Corrin.

“Hey, Peach,” Ike called, turning around in order to face the princess. “Yesterday, Corrin visited that fortune teller that you recommended her. What’s her name...”

“Oh, Madame Celeste!” she beamed, her high pitched voice grating his ears. “She’s lovely, isn’t she? How did it go? Did you actually visit her with Corrin? What about-”

“I wouldn’t say that she was lovely,” he groaned. “If anything this Madame Celeste ended up scaring Corrin more than helping her out.”

“What?! That can’t be it, I can’t imagine her doing anything of the sort to her,” Peach said, crossing her arms. “How do you even know that Corrin was scared?”

“I was there with her. Kamui as well.”

“Well… still, she is such a nice person!”

“Having to hear about inner demons and bad omens isn’t exactly what I would call nice.”

Peach tilted her head to the side, genuinely confused about what Ike was telling her. Even when Madame Celeste read a bad fortune for her, she always made sure to reassure her that everything would be alright. It felt like they have visited a completely different person. 

“You know, this is why I try to avoid dealing with stuff like this,” Whitney commented, long done with setting up her equipment. “What if the fortune teller is in a bad day and curses me?”

“She never would do that, Whitney. I don’t think she even knows how to cast a curse,” Peach said. 

“I can only imagine what was on that strange tea that she offered Corrin,” Ike commented out of the blue. “Poor girl was this close to gagging from the bad taste.”

“Ew,” the trainer winced.

“Tea?”

“Madame Celeste insisted that Corrin would drink some strange tea to calm her nerves before reading her fortune,” he explained, confused at her own confusion. “Isn’t that something she usually does for her clients?”

“No, she never did anything of the sort,” she raised an eyebrow at him. “Ike, tell me something, what did Madame Celeste look like when you visited her?”

“I don’t know, she had her face covered with a veil the whole time, I could only see her red eyes.”

“...Red eyes?”

“And I guess her pale hand and black nails, they looked really sharp,” he continued, only stopping when he saw her alarmed face. “Why do you ask?”

“Ike, Madame Celeste is a magikoopa, she has none of the traits that you described,” Peach said. “Who… who did you guys end up seeing?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You know, I'm tempted to write a Kamui/Ike or a Kamui/Corrin M rated one shot a lot more lately. But we'll see if that's possible with me trying to keep this fic updated consistently.
> 
> By the way, have you noticed if there is a pattern in the people that Corrin keeps seeing?


	5. Hding in plain sight

Corrin knew that she couldn't keep her hallucinations a secret, not if she wanted to not accidentally kill herself. She had to tell about them to someone, just not to Kamui, since he would get too worried and not concentrate on his battles and other duties. He would also give her a look of pity that made her grow inexplicably more bitter the more she hypothesized about it, so, while Kamui was one of her most dearest friends and almost like a brother to her, she was better off finding support in someone else.

Now, who could understand her and help her out? Who did she feel would be safe to say that she was hallucinating and that she wouldn't be labeled as crazy? Not many people, if she were to be honest. She could tell Peach, who was very understanding and compassionate, but would also probably take some time to believe her. Maybe she could tell Luigi, despite not being particularly close to him, as he was one of the sweetest people she had met from the tournament.

"...and so I was thinking about suggesting that we should pair up for the next double tournament," Robin concluded, her long speech passing by almost unnoticed by Corrin.

Corrin felt her mind being dragged back to reality with that last bit and wondered just how much of the conversation she had lost. By way Kamui's mouth contorted in an apologetic frown, which probably meant that he would turn down whatever proposal that Robin had offered.

"I would love to, Robin," Kamui began, his arms crossed. "But I was going to ask Corrin if she would be okay with us being Ike's partners."

"Wait, what was that?" Corrin asked, a bit lost in the conversation.

"I didn't have time to mention this to you before, but Ike and I have discussed about being partners in this upcoming double tournament," he explained. "I told him that I would give him an answer once I discussed this with you, since we share the same fighter slot."

"Oh, well… thank you," she said, hesitating for a moment before speaking. "I don't mind having Ike as a partner, he is a good fighter and a good friend, but that would mean that I would need to train with him and see how we would work as a team."

"No problem! I'm sure that you and him will be great together!" he clasped his hand in an excited manner, grinning from ear to ear. "I'll tell him that you agreed, then!"

"That's too bad," Robin said, resting her chin on her hand, not even bothering with touching the now cold cup of coffee. "I thought for sure that you guys would agree. To think that I was looking forward to working with you..."

So that was what the conversation was all about, Corrin thought. Robin just wanted to propose an alliance for the upcoming double tournament, probably banking on the fact that they were in similar situations, as in, Robin also had a counterpart of the opposite sex and had to share a fighter slot and name with him. Corrin had to admit that, to this day, she found it weird how that was the reason why both she and Kamui started bonding with both Robins, but they had a strange feeling of kinship with them that Corrin stopped trying to explain a long time ago. Their friendship just happened and that was all that mattered to her.

"Do you have a second option?" Kamui asked.

"Rob said that Lucario was interested, but I find his fighting style too unreliable," the tactician groaned. "I don't trust fighting styles that require you to be beaten up to grow stronger."

"What about..."

Corrin's thoughts began to wander off once again as their conversation went on. Part of her felt guilty for barely paying attention to her friends, but she was sure that had that not incident happened, she would be feeling a lot better to discuss things regarding the tournament. The image of the woman in white from Corrin's vision kept appearing in her mind, her sweet and welcoming voice vivid in her memory. She tried to make sense of who the woman was, as she did seem familiar somehow, though Corrin couldn't quite understand why. She stared at Robin's face, in a weak attempt to pretend that she was paying attention to her woes about the upcoming tournament, when a sudden realization hit her, almost as if waking her up from her not exactly daydreaming.

Rob, of course! Maybe he could help her out, considering some of the things that she heard happened to him before she was reborn in the Smash world.

"Speaking of Rob, where is he?" Corrin asked, which brought their attention to her. "I just remembered that there is something that I would like to talk to him about."

"He's with Lucario, but I have no idea where they are," Robin took a sip from her coffee, immediately regretting it because of how cold it grew. "You could just send him a message, if you want."

"Oh, right, I keep forgetting that."

The technology from the Smash world was a wonderful thing, but Corrin still had issues getting used to it, even two years later, be it for good or not. She took her phone out of her purse and excused herself, leaving Kamui and Robin to talk in peace outside. while she went back inside the shop and made way to the restroom in order to call Rob. She could send the message like Robin suggested, but she preferred to call him since she couldn't wait until he saw it.

Corrin looked around the shop, searching for the restroom, when she felt a small, gentle hand tapping her shoulder. She turned around and saw a petite looking woman smiling at her.

"Can I help you, miss?" the woman asked, that inviting smile never leaving her red lips.

For a moment, Corrin thought that she was one of the baristas, but was quick to take that thought back once she took a better glance at her. The woman had her wavy dark brown hair down that perfectly framed her face, unlike the women in the staff who had to wear their hair in a tight bun, not to mention that her red dress was nowhere near appropriate for the employ's dress conduct.

"Excuse me?" Corrin asked, a bit surprised.

"Ah, sorry, it's just that I saw you standing here and that you seemed a bit lost," the woman said.

"Oh, um, I was wondering where the restroom was."

"I don't think that there is one here," she said, looking around and searching for a door. "How very odd."

"Wait, really?"

"Yes."

"Then… where do the employees go when they…?"

"I have no idea," the woman then giggled. "Listen, I think that there's a store nearby with a restroom, so if you want to..."

"N-no, no, it's fine, I actually just wanted to make a call," Corrin said, waving her hands in denial. "It's just that I'm with two other friends and that it would be rude to ignore them like this."

"Ah, I see."

"Thanks for the help anyway, uh…"

"My name's Laura," she smiled at her. "And you?"

"Nice to meet you, I'm Corrin."

"I know who you are," Laura said and pointed at the TV screen hanging from a wall. "You're a Smasher, aren't you? I saw your fight being transmitted a few moments ago."

"Ugh, don't even mention that fight," Corrin groaned, hiding her face with her hand. "I got my butt handed to me by Bayonetta."

"You think so?" she tilted her head. "I thought that you were wonderful."

"But I lost."

"But the fight was exciting!" Laura exclaimed, clasping her hands in excitement. "I was at the edge of my seat and rooting for you the entire time!"

"Weren't you disappointed then? I mean, if you were rooting for me..."

"A little, but that was because I wanted to see you win. That witch pulled off a cheap trick on you on the last moment!"

"That's Bayonetta alright..." Corrin said.

"See? I'm not even an expert and even I knew that it was unfair for you."

"Heh, well, it's alright. We win some and we lose some, I'm sure that my brother and I will compensate for this loss."

"Of course you will!"

"Well, Laura, it was really nice to talk to you, but I think I need to go back," the princess said, looking back and seeing Kamui and Robin talking outside through the smoky glass. "I'm glad that you are supporting Kamui and I, it's really important to us."

"He he, no problem. Though, if I were to be honest, my support goes mostly to you instead of your brother."

"W-wait, really?"

"Yeah, but I don't want to keep you from your friends any longer, I took too much of your time," Laura said with a grin. "It was nice meeting you, Corrin!"

"You too, Laura."

In the end, Corrin decided to send Rob a text message and hoped that he wouldn't take long to see it. She returned to Kamui and Robin's table as if nothing happened, a small smile on her lips that she tried to fight back.

\---------

Rob took a deep breath, his mind focusing solely on the action of inhaling and exhaling, as if the world around him didn't exist. He could feel the presence inside of him struggling at first, but quickly quieting down in mere seconds, bringing him a gradual feeling of relief as he continued to breathe slowly and push the presence to the back of his mind once again.

He opened his eyes as he felt the paw of his friend touching his shoulder.

" _Robin, is everything alright?_ " Lucario asked.

"Yeah, it's fine," Rob said in a calm tone. "Minor headache, but it's already dealt with it."

Lucario nodded and continued to bask in the sunlight as Rob now looked around, searching for a certain Nohrian princess who sounded desperate over message to meet him. Since Rob was busy hanging out with Lucario at the Green Greens park, he told her that he would still be there for the next couple of hours, so whatever urgent matter she had to discuss with him, she knew where she would find him. He mindlessly watched the people pass by him, some jogging, while others were just taking a stroll, either alone or with friends. The tree leafs were already showing signs of yet another autumn that had just begun, though the leafs had not started to fall. No doubt next time that Rob visited the park, most of them would be on the ground, time in this realm passed more quickly than he liked.

He wondered what Corrin could want with him, probably something to do with the tournament. Rob knew that Robin wanted to talk to Corrin and Kamui about the upcoming tournament, so maybe Corrin just wanted to discuss their partnership with him in more details. That saddened him a little, as he was looking forward to working with Lucario, but he had an agreement with Robin and so he wouldn't object to Kamui and Corrin being their partners.

Speaking of Lucario, he certainly looked like he was enjoying the sunlight, sort of reminding Rob of a puppy. He must have been really tired.

" _So when will Corrin arrive?_ " Lucario asked, his eyes still closed.

"She said that she was nearby and..."

" _Never mind, there she is._ "

Just as Lucario said, Rob saw Corrin in the distance, walking towards their direction. Rob would be more surprised at Lucario's keen senses, but he was used to his antics by this point. He got up from the concrete bench and made his way towards her. As he approached his friend, he noticed how visibly uncomfortable she looked, with her arms crossed and shrunk shoulders, almost as if she was hesitant about something. The idea that she wanted to discuss about the upcoming tournament quickly went away and he grew more worried about her.

"Hey, Corrin," he greeted, as delicately as possible. "How's things?"

"Hi, Rob, thanks for answering so quickly," Corrin said, arms still crossed. "I wish I could say I'm fine, but that's not the case."

"So it seems. What's wrong?"

Corrin hesitated, as she searched for the right words to explain her situation without making it seem as if she was crazy, which was not an easy task with Lucario approaching them.

"Well, I have a problem..." she started. "I don't know how to explain it, but..."

"But?"

"No matter what I say, do you promise that you won't think that I'm crazy?"

"I've had my fair share of crazy experiences, so yes, I promise."

Corrin looked at him, and then at Lucario, who watched them with a quiet, impartial expression.

"I, uh… I think that someone, or… something... is trying to kill me."

An awkward silence filled the air between them, a tinge of regret starting to grow inside of her as she saw confusion in both of their faces.

"Kill you?" Rob asked, his brows furrowed. "I don't think I understand, Corrin. Are you being threatened by someone?"

"Well, no… I mean, yes, b-but..." she stuttered, unable to look at them in the eye anymore. "You see, I..."

" _Take a deep breath,_ " Lucario suggested. " _It will help you clear your mind._ "

She did as she was suggested, a bit annoyed at his tone of voice, as it sounded to her that he was already judging her, despite that not being his intention.

"Rob, lately I've been seeing people calling out to me," she said, trying to look him in the eye. "They are not aggressive or violent, they are actually really inviting..."

"Right..."

"But then, every time I try to reach them, I find myself in danger," Corrin took another deep breath. "I think that I'm being tricked into killing myself."

Rob and Lucario exchanged a worried look. It wasn't as if they didn't believe her. Rob especially had no reason to doubt her when he had to deal with an illness that every now and then it tried to take over him, but he had no idea if that was the same case with Corrin. He asked her to go into more detail, listening carefully to her story as he started to identify with her worries and fears of accidentally harming herself or others when under the influence of a strange presence. He definitely sympathized, but he had to make sure of something.

"Hey, Corrin, do you happen to have a cursed bloodline?" Rob asked.

"No?" she tilted her head. "Where did this come from?"

"No, nothing, just checking."

Despite both of them having the blood of ancient dragons, apparently Corrin's wasn't malevolent, as far as he knew. At least, not enough to manifest as a parasite like his did.

" _What do these people look like, Corrin?_ " Lucario asked.

"I don't know, their faces looked blurred, but they somehow felt familiar," Corrin said. "Might explain why I keep trying to reach them."

She saw Lucario closing his eyes and opening them a second later, his amber irises showing a strong glow. Corrin wanted to ask what he was doing, but his eyes quickly went back to normal.

" _There doesn't seem to be anything wrong with your aura,_ " Lucario explained. " _Whatever is bothering you, it is an external force, not something from within._ "

"Wow, Lucario, you usually ask people before scanning them with your powers," Rob joked, a bit surprised at his friend's unusual spontaneous attitude. "It's like I don't even know you anymore."

" _I apologize._ "

"N-no, it's okay, I don't mind," Corrin said, waving her hands.

"Well, Corrin, I have no idea how I could help you with so little information," he shook his head. "What did Kamui say when you told him this?"

"I didn't say anything to him."

"What? Why not?" Rob asked, surprised. "Surely he must be the best person to understand your situation!"

"No, because this never happened to him," Corrin said, crossing her arms. "I didn't want to worry him, so I didn't tell him."

"Ah, but you have no problem with worrying me or Lucario, uh?" he chuckled.

She could feel her cheeks burning up from embarrassment, almost like a child who got caught lying. She could feel Rob waiting for a better excuse, but she had none, as she genuinely believed that she was keeping it a secret from Kamui out of worry for his well-being. He had his own life to worry about, it wouldn't be fair. Yet, it was as Rob said, she didn't hesitate to call for his help, despite knowing that he also had his issues.

" _Corrin, maybe you should go talk to Kamui_ ," Lucario suggested.

"You two are like brother and sister," Rob added. "I'm sure he will do everything in his power to help you out."

"I don't know..."

"Listen, how about this?" he put a hand on her shoulder. "Go talk to Kamui, while I try to do some research on your case. I'm not sure if I might come up with an answer, but I'll try what I can."

"Thank you, Rob-"

"But only if you talk to Kamui."

She cursed under her breath, enough to send a message that she was annoyed, but not enough for him to know what she said. Corrin wished she could go back in time and find another person to talk to, but she quickly realized that Rob was still the better option anyway, so if talking to Kamui was the price to get him to help her, then so be it.

\---------

Richter let out a sigh and rubbed his eyes as he tried to concentrate on his book, while he waited for his train to arrive. Between going on missions and fighting in the tournament, the only moments of peace that he found were when he was going from one place to another. He ignored his phone when it started to vibrate on his pocket, being almost entirely sure that it was his boss trying to annoy him, and continued to focus on his book. He never thought that a teenage romantic drama between a human girl and a supernatural being would create such a bile fascination from his part, but there he was, gobbling that silly story up and then comparing it to his own experiences with the supernatural and all of his fights.

If only the creatures he had fought were that noble and romantic, maybe his family wouldn't be so cursed.

The train arrived at the island platform, forcing his mind to come back to reality for a moment. Richter closed his book and was about to walk inside the wagon, but found himself freezing in place once he saw the glimpse of a particular woman inside, almost lost in the midst of the overpopulated wagon. At first he thought that he might be seeing things, as she wouldn't be hiding in plain sight like that, but one closer look at her red attire, silky brown hair and piercing red eyes was enough to confirm his suspicions.

For a brief second, they exchanged glances and Richter could feel his blood boiling.

He quickly regained his senses and desperately tried to pass through the massive crowd of impatient people. His desperation only grew when he saw her giving him a sly smile and following the dense crowd that left through the other side of the wagon, running away from him as soon as she was at the other lane.

"Hey, get back here!" he yelled, startling the people around him.

But it was too late, the woman had already ran away, leaving Richter behind, feeling like a fool. He let out a frustrated yell, drawing even more attention to him, though at this point he didn't care, his mind was focused only on the image of the woman running away, taunting him with that cynical smile of hers. He took a deep breath and tried to calm down, but found it a difficult task to perform the more he thought about how close he was to capturing her, only to have her slip away.

He would not tell about his incident to his boss, he would not hear the end of it. Bayonetta would also probably laugh at his face, so telling her that he had finally found who they were looking for, only to have her run away from him was out of question. Richter let out a frustrated sigh and leaned against the wall, wondering where the woman could have gone to.

"Damn you, Laura!" he cursed under his breath. "I'll find you, even if that's the last thing I'll do!"


	6. Sleepover as an intervention method

At nightfall, Corrin and Kamui met up with Ike and Peach at the hotel lobby, as both prince and princess received a message from them asking if they wanted to have dinner together. It almost felt like a double date for Kamui, if he pretended that he and Ike were a couple and that Corrin and Peach were interested in each other. He certainly wouldn't mind if that scenario revealed to be true in the next couple of seconds, but he knew better than letting himself indulge in his fantasies, only to feel frustrated in the end. It would take a while until Ike realized that Kamui was interested in him and tonight he certainly wouldn't say anything to him, not with Corrin and Peach there.

He hoped that they would have a nice and pleasant dinner, but that apparently wouldn't be the case, as Peach didn't waste anytime running towards them with an apologetic expression on her face. Corrin was taken aback by her friend grabbing her hands and squeezing them tight.

"Corrin, oh, I'm so sorry," she apologized, voice high pitched as ever. "I should have gone with you!"

"Wait, what?" Corrin asked, gently pulling her hands away. "What are you talking about, Peach?"

"How about we discuss this better at dinner?" Ike suggested, his demeanor ever so calm. "Corrin, Kamui, there's something we need to tell you two."

The siblings exchanged a look between them, but didn't say a word. They followed their friends towards the hotel's restaurant and took about ten minutes until they could find a table and make their orders to the waiter. The fact that Ike decided to order a medium rare steak was not a surprise to Kamui, but what did surprise him was someone as dainty as peach make the same order. She really must have been stressed if she was willing to dig in one of the restaurant's biggest dishes, meanwhile, Corrin just asked for a veggie chowder and he ordered the surf and turf.

Once everyone settled in, Peach took a deep breath.

"Corrin, you were scammed," she simply said, earning even more confused look from Corrin.

"Peach, I still don't know what you are talking about," Corrin sighed.

"Scammed by who?" Kamui asked.

"Ike told me all about how you guys decided to visit Madame Celeste," Peach explained, having to raise her hand once she saw Kamui ready to stand up. "No, the real Madame Celeste is not a scammer."

"The real Madame Celeste?" he raised an eyebrow.

"At first, I was happy to hear that you visited her, but then Ike described her to me and the woman you visited doesn't fit the description of Madame Celeste, she's a magikoopa, not a human," the princess continued, placing her hands on her lap. "I have no idea who that woman is."

"So we just ended up visiting the wrong place?" Kamui asked, still confused. "How was Corrin scammed?"

"No… we were at the right place," Corrin said as she started to realize what was going. "Don't you remember, Kamui? The name of the place was Celeste's and she even said that that was her name."

"Oh, you're right, she did say that," he said, putting a hand on his chin.

Corrin was left pondering about that new piece of information, replaying her encounter with that woman, who she thought to be a fortune teller, in her mind. She remember feeling like something was off, but she did not question that feeling, as she thought that she was just imagining things and she trusted Peach's word. Corrin quietly reprimanded herself for letting be deceived so easily, when a detail from their encounter crossed her mind, one that made her worry all the more as she started to associate with the sudden queasiness she felt as she left the shop.

That awful tea, the one that tasted like blood and death.

"What did she make me drink?" she whispered, terrified at what her imagination was coming up with.

"What did you say, Corrin?" Ike asked, breaking his own silence as he noticed her worried expression.

"That woman convinced me to drink that weird tea, if I can even call that awful thing that," Corrin said, looking up. "I… I thought that the nausea I've felt later was a coincidence, but what if it did something to me?"

"I don't know," he answered. "Do you think that there's something wrong with you? Do you want to see a doctor?"

"No, there's nothing wrong with my bod-"

Corrin felt silent again, worrying everyone at the table immediately, as they wondered what could have caused her to abruptly stop. The images of the people who called for her came to her mind and she kept replaying her encounters (if she could could call them that) in her mind. Was it a coincidence that they started to happen after she visited that woman? She was almost sure that it wasn't, not with the possibility that it was very likely that the woman had some ill intentions towards her.

Could it be possible that the tea had some sort of ingredient that made her hallucinate? Could such a herb, or whatever ingredient was used, even exist? Many questions started to pass through her mind as she start to piece the information bit by bit. But one thing she was sure, and that was that she owed her friends an explanation to her odd behavior at the moment.

"There's something I need to tell you," Corrin said, turning her attention to them, but especially to Kamui. "Kamui, everyone, I think that I might be in danger."

She explained to them her situation, from how she first started to feel ill when she left the shop to the hallucinations that she had in the past two days. Kamui finally understood what transpired with his sister earlier, why she was ready to walk right into a speeding car, as if she had no regard for her life. If he were to be honest, her story seemed less sane than she wanted to come off as, but regardless, it was clear that it was something that was causing her a lot of stress. Her lips were quivering and her voice sounded shaky, with her stuttering more and more as her story progressed, to the point where he had to place a hand over hers in an attempt to calm her down. Unfortunately, that only served to make her flinch, but she did not pull her hand away.

Regardless, he at least felt happy to know that she trusted him to help her out. Sure, she could have told him earlier, but he did not think too hard on that. What mattered was helping her out now and he would do his utmost to support her. Ike and Peach were also quick to show their support, though the way they showed their support varied. Peach was quick to get up from her chair and hug the distressed princess, causing quite a bit of a ruckus that Corrin did not feel comfortable with, but let it slide since she was used to her friend's emotional outbursts, while Ike acted in a calm, almost unemotional, way and said that he would not let anything happen to her. As for Kamui, he, above everyone else in that table, would make sure that Corrin was safe and sound.

The first thing that they would do tomorrow would be visit Madame Celeste and get some answers, with Peach making sure to accompany them this time. As for tonight, it was decided that Kamui would spend the night at Corrin's room to make sure that, in case she had another "encounter", she would be safe from accidentally harming herself. Corrin wanted to protest, as the idea of Kamui practically babysitting her through the night was embarrassing as it was, but after that whole confession of hers, she did not want to come across as ungrateful for his help.

"Still, Madame Celeste might not have all the answers for the problem," Peach said, resting her finger on her chin. "She's a fortune teller, but she doesn't perform miracles."

"You are right, we can't just prevent Corrin from injuring herself," Ike said, nodding. "We need to find answers and stop these visions from happening."

"Oh, Rob said that he would be on the case," Corrin explained, which surprised Kamui. "I asked for his help earlier and he said that he would do some research."

"Good thinking!" Peach said.

Kamui could only look at her, more hurt than he would like to admit. She asked for Rob's help first? Sure, it made sense, Rob had a brilliant mind for strategy and was quite studious, but since when was she close enough with him to feel comfortable sharing this delicate piece of information with him?

"...Kamui, are you listening?" Corrin asked.

"Uh?"

"Will you be staying in my room tonight, then?" she asked again, this time her voice hesitating.

"Oh, sure," Kamui said, nodding his head. "Of course! I'll be there for you, Corrin."

Their conversation was interrupted by the waiter bringing them their orders, which shifted the conversation to lighter topics, ranging from the upcoming double tournament to Peach commenting with Ike how nice it was of him to help Whitney earlier. Despite all of that, nothing seemed to stop Kamui and Corrin from feeling uneasy, though for different reasons that neither would talk to the other about.

The night promised to be awkward, alright.

\---------

Rob let out a sigh of relief as he entered the hotel lobby, happy that another day full of battle went by with no losses from his part. He had no hopes to be in the top five winner's list by the end of the tournament by all means, as it was too close to finishing and their score was not nearly high enough, but it was enough to give him a boost in confidence for the next one. He walked down the small set of marbled stairs and walked towards the woman waiting for him at one of the cream colored couches at the center of the lobby.

Robin opened a smile as she saw her husband approaching her and got up from the couch, walking towards him with opened arms.

"Congratulations for today's battles!" she said, hugging him in a tight embrace.

"Thanks, Robin," he said, returning the hug. "I mean, it's not enough to get into the top five winners, but..."

"Oh, don't try to downplay your victories," Robin said, in a fake reprimanding tone. "Five in a row is an amazing achievement, regardless of our position in the list."

"Heh, you're right."

"So are you ready to go out?"

"Robin, I just came back from a battle against Ryu," Rob groaned, breaking from their embrace. "Can't I take a shower before we go out for dinner?"

"You're right, sorry," Robin apologized.

They made their way back to their room in slow steps, chatting about their day and the like, as they haven't seen each other since morning and just wanted to enjoy each other's company. When they approached the elevators, the topic of their double tournament came up.

"I talked to both Corrin today," Robin shook her head as she pressed the call button. "They are already going to be Ike's partner."

"Oh, so does this mean…?"

"Fine, we can have Lucario as our partner."

"Yes!" Rob celebrated, pumping his fist. "Robin, I promise that you won't regret this!"

"I trust you," Robin said, though still a bit uncertain. "I just hope that I can trust Lucario. We're not doing badly, but we can't slack off."

The elevator arrived and they both got inside. For a moment, they remained silent, each lost in their own thoughts as they listened to the low, calming music from the elevator. One thought led to another and Rob suddenly found himself remembering the peculiar favor he was asked to do that afternoon.

"Speaking of Corrin," he said, pausing only when the elevator stopped at their floor and they had to leave. "Did she talk to you about the issue she has been going through?"

"What issue?"

"Oh, so she hasn't talked to you about this..."

"Talked about what, Rob?"

He had no idea if Corrin wanted to keep her problems a secret or not, but if he were to be honest with himself, he had no idea where to start searching for a solution to something like that. Rob could really use his wife's help, but he had to talk to her in secret so no curious passing-by Smasher could accidentally her their conversation. Without saying a word, he gestured for Robin to follow him to their room. Robin, curious and kind of alarmed by his sudden shift in attitude, followed him without asking any more questions. Once they were inside, Robin waited with crossed arms for Rob to tell her what was all about the secrecy.

"Okay, so Corrin reached me today and asked me for a favor," he began.

"Right..." she raised an eyebrow.

"Turns out that she's going through some serious trouble and she's too afraid to talk to other people because she thinks that she'll be labeled crazy."

"Crazy? Does Corrin even realize where she lives? Nothing in the Smash universe can be classified as too crazy."

"Unfortunately, this might be the case," Rob sighed. "Corrin thinks that there's something out there trying to get her killed."

Before Robin could open her mouth and question it, Rob was quick to explain Corrin's situation, trying to recount every detail that she told him and trying to make as much sense as he could. Robin could only listen in silence, resting her chin on her fist and trying to process every bit of information. She then remembered her friend's odd quiet behavior earlier and could only wonder if that could be the cause for her to seem so lost.

"Does she have a cursed bloodline?" Robin asked, right after Rob finished his explanation.

"I know what you're thinking and no, she doesn't have the same problem as me," he said. "From what I can understand, it's not something that's coming from within her. Even Lucario couldn't find anything in her aura."

"Well then…" she clicked her tongue. "What did she ask of you?"

"I said that I would help her understand what she was going through by doing research on her case," he explained and then begun to scratch his head. "But I have no idea where to start."

"Why don't you try reading her bio?" Robin suggested. "I'm sure that Master Hand has manuals describing every Smasher's history stored up at his office."

"And risk him knowing about her situation?" Rob asked. "What if he decides to expose her and make things worse? You know that he can take extreme decisions."

"I guess we both do…"

"At least I made her have some sense and ask for support from Kamui."

"Wait, she didn't ask Kamui for help?" Robin asked, genuinely surprised. Considering how those two were practically siblings, she would have assumed that he would be the first to know.

"I was as surprised as you," Rob nodded. "She said that she didn't want to worry him, but I doubt that it was just because of that."

"How odd..."

"Yeah..."

A few moments of silence passed by, until Robin broke it by putting a hand on his shoulder and said:

"Rob, you are smelling bad, go take a shower," she playfully stuck her tongue out. "How about discuss this better over dinner? I'm getting really hungry!"

"Alright, alright," he said and gave her peck on the lips. "But can you not comment with Corrin what I just told you? I don't know if I should have kept this a secret, but I'm really lost on where to start."

"No problem, I'll help you out."

\---------

Corrin couldn't put into words exactly how awkward it was to have Kamui over to her room to spend the night and she certainly hoped that nobody knew that, or they might take it the wrong way. She could only watch from her bed, sitting her legs close to her chest, as Kamui set up the small mossy green couch in front of the door window that lead to her balcony and sat on it with crossed legs, his eyes watchful.

Could she even sleep properly like that? Oh, gods, that situation was starting to look like the beginning of one of those raunchy romance novels that she loved to read back in her home world, she definitely couldn't stop thinking about that.

"Alright, Corrin," Kamui said with optimism. "There's no way that you can get to the balcony without me noticing. There's nothing to worry about!"

"Thanks, Kamui..."

He got up from the couch and sat at the end of her bed, not noticing how that seemed to make Corrin tighten her embrace over her legs.

"Hey, I was wondering..."

"Yes?"

"I know that this may sound stupid," he scratched the back of his neck. "But why did you ask for Rob's help first?"

"Because... Rob seemed like he would understand better," Corrin explained, hesitantly. "He had problems in the past seemed similar to mine now, so..."

"Makes sense, but still..."

"Are you upset?"

"No! Of course not!"

"Then why do you sound upset?"

"I'm not upset, Corrin!" Kamui exclaimed, making Corrin recoil a bit. "Look, I was curious, that's all!"

He definitely was upset, though Corrin couldn't understand why.

"Okay, Kamui, whatever you say," she sighed.

They chatted for a little while longer, with Corrin wanting to forget about her problems for a while and Kamui wanting to change the subject so Corrin wouldn't keep asking why he was upset. Which he wasn't, he reassured himself. He was curious about why she didn't immediately search for him. If Corrin were in his place, she would act in the same way, he just knew that. They chatted mostly about small and trivial things, be it about how lovely the coffee shop they visited that day was, to how Corrin was wondering if she should enroll in one of Whitney's yoga's classes, since she had heard good things about them from Peach and Palutena.

The distraction was nice enough to make both Corrin and Kamui gradually grow more at ease with the current situation and lift some of the tension between them up. Regardless of her discomfort before, Corrin was genuinely grateful for Kamui's support and felt a bit safer knowing that she had her friends watching over her. The fact that none of them treated her as a fragile thing that should be protected also helped.

She would visit the real Madame Celeste tomorrow and get some answers, but for now, all she wanted was to get a good night of sleep. She let out a yawn and that was the cue for Kamui to get up from her bed and go back to the couch, wishing her a good night and telling her that he would see her tomorrow. Corrin wished him good night as well and snuggled under the sheets, hoping for an uneventful night of sleep.


	7. Well-meaning, but useless

_Corrin wandered through the maze-like forest in a stupor, not sure where she was going or what she wanted to reach, its crooked trees tall and oppressive, almost covering the starry night sky. She could do nothing but walk the thinly laid path ahead of her, as if she were to stray from that path, she feared that the trees would gobble her up and she would never return home, to her beloved family. Corrin could only hope that the path would lead her to somewhere safe._

_The girl stopped on her tracks as a white cat jumped out of nowhere and stopped right in front of her, its big, amber eyes piercing through her own. She had no idea why, but she felt drawn by it, so Corrin gently crouched and took the white cat into her arms, caressing its silky fur as it purred with satisfaction. Maybe it was also lost. Just like her, it probably was also searching for its home. Corrin would like to take it with her._

_As she walked with the cat cradled in her arms, she saw an imposing robbed figure standing a few feet away from her, the figure's face covered by a mask. The figure extended a bony finger towards them, signaling for her to come closer. Corrin stopped and took one step back, unsure if she should obey or turn away and leave. The figure, which she assumed to be a woman, judging by the delicate design of the white mask, didn't look threatening, but her presence felt unnerving, nonetheless. Before Corrin could ponder more on what to do, the white cat struggled in her arms, forcing her to drop it before it could hurt her with its claws, and ran towards the figure. She followed the cat, wanting to shout that it was dangerous to run ahead like this, but no coherent words came out of her mouth, leaving her a mumbling mess as she watched the animal disappear beneath the red robes of the woman._

_She almost screamed as the woman lunged towards her with her arms extended and froze in fear as she wrapped her skinny fingers around her vulnerable neck. They stood like that for a few moments, with Corrin unsure what to do and the woman tilting her head as she analyzed the girl's possible reactions. Little by little, the woman's grip on her throat loosened up, her hands now making their way to her frightened face. Corrin had no idea why, but she could swear that the woman was grinning._

_"You are such a pretty little lady," the woman said. "And you have so much potential! I just want to have you all for myself!"_

_"Ah, I..."_

_"I know what you need," the woman continued, one of her hands reaching inside her robe and taking out a delicate white mask. "You need a mask just like mine. This way we can be connected forever."_

_"S-stop… Stop!" she cried out, shaking her head in an attempt to dodge her. "I don't..."_

\---------

"I don't want..." Corrin mumbled, her face buried deep into the pillow. "Leave me alone..."

She shot her eyes open and slowly sat up, dazed from the bizarre dream she was having and from her newfound headache. The warm light from the early morning that came from her balcony's window gave the entire room a faint glow, a sight that Corrin would have enjoyed more if she wasn't so focused on her head feeling like it was about to explode. She had no idea what time it was, but it was certainly earlier than she was used to waking up to, at least on her own volition. Sprawled all over her couch was Kamui, who seemed to be sleeping in a very uncomfortable position and was very likely to wake up with a bad case of back pain.

It took her a while to process what was going on, but once her mind started to work properly, Corrin quickly got up from her bed and walked towards her sleeping friend. She gently shook his shoulder in an attempt of not startling him, which only proved to be for nothing, since Kamui woke up in a jump anyway.

"W-what?" he stuttered and then turned his attention to Corrin. "Oh, good morning, Corrin."

"Hey, morning," she greeted. "How are you feeling, Kamui?"

"Urgh, not that good," he groaned, sitting up straight and stretching his back. "I think I slept on the wrong position, my back is killing me."

"This couch is not exactly the most comfortable thing in the world..." Corrin mumbled. "I'm sorry that you had to sleep like this."

"It's fine, I'm just glad that nothing has happened," Kamui shook his head and stood up. "Do you think that you will be okay?"

"I do," she shot him a small, reassuring smile. "Thank you for looking out for me tonight, Kamui, but I think that nothing will happen for now."

"Well, if you feel like there's anything wrong, you can always call me," he said and then let out a yawn. "I think that I'll go back to my room then."

"Sure, no problem."

Once Kamui left the room, Corrin let out a sigh and considered her options. She was still feeling very tired, but her weird dream made her not want to go back to sleep. She didn't consider it a nightmare, as she didn't recall feeling fear, but it was still something that filled her with dread and brought a chill down her spine as she recalled the events from the dream. Her headache pulsed more intensively, bringing to a halt any thought process that she had regarding the dream and what were her options for the morning.

The first thing she needed to do was get some painkillers, because that headache was starting to annoy her. Corrin went to her bathroom and opened the last drawer under her sink, searching for the bag where she kept her medications, hissing a curse as she realized that there were none left. When was the last time that she stocked her supply?

"Tch, doesn't matter..."

Corrin didn't think that the first thing she would do that day was to visit a pharmacy, but that was the situation that she found herself in. Meanwhile, Kamui made his way back to his bedroom, his eyelids heavy and his neck and back sore from the uncomfortable sleeping position. He wished that his room wasn't located one floor below, it would make his return easier. Kamui passed by one door, two, three, and suddenly came to a halt on the fourth one, the one with the "211" in golden numbers, as a very important question passed through his mind: was that Ike's room?

He could swear that he heard Corrin once mentioning to him that Ike had his room close to hers. Kamui pondered for a bit about why that question was important to him. So what if that was Ike's room? What did he expect out of that? He had no business there and should go back to his room, because he was tired and needed to take the opportunity that he had a couple of hours before his day started to get some proper shut eye. With a yawn, Kamui walked away… and then walked backwards once he remembered that he wanted to invite Ike over for breakfast and that it would be much better to do that in person instead of over message. Without thinking twice, Kamui knocked on the door.

Gods, he hoped that that was Ike's room, or else, he would look like a fool. As the seconds passed by without an answer, Kamui started to doubt himself and what he was doing. No, he shouldn't, it was fine, he just needed to knock again.

Knock knock!

He bit his lower lip as there was no answer again. Maybe he should leave.

"I'm coming, hang on," the familiar voice on the other said, bringing Kamui a sense of relief.

Kamui's red eyes brightened up as he saw Ike opening the door, his face showing a morning disposition that made him quite envious. Judging from how he was already dressed up in his mercenary outfit and armor, it appeared that Ike had been awake for some time now, which only made Kamui's envy grow. Gods, he wished he was this much of an early bird.

"Kamui, what are you doing here?" Ike asked, surprised, though not displeased. "It's a bit early, don't you think?"

"I know, it is just that I was returning from Corrin's room and decided to pay you a visit," he explained. "I was wondering if you wanted to go out for breakfast with me? There's a bakery nearby that has an amazing breakfast service and..."

"Sure, but," Ike said, interrupting him. "How's Corrin? Did the night go by without problems?"

"Corrin's fine and slept really well," Kamui said. "Didn't even look like she was going through her… situation."

"Do you believe that it'll happen again?" he asked. "You know, her visions?"

"I don't know, but I am glad to know that I could help her in any way."

"Still, I'd keep an eye out on her… just in case."

Kamui agreed with a nod of head, but said nothing else on the matter. Corrin was fine, she just needed some company and reassurance, which he provided her with no problem. If anything threatening were to happen to her, he would be there to protect her from any harm, just like he did yesterday. But for now, he just wanted to spend some time with Ike and thought that bringing up the subject of the upcoming tournament would be the perfect ice breaker. That proved to be the charm and soon he and Ike made their way to the bakery that was two squares away from the hotel.

That day promised to be great, but Kamui didn't know if it was his infatuation speaking louder than his intuition. He did not care either way.

\---------

Once Corrin was done changing from her nightgown to her more casual clothes and preparing herself for the day, she decided that before she had any breakfast or did anything else, she would buy some painkillers for that annoying headache. She sent a message to Peach that she wouldn't be able to eat with her due to her change in plans and was pleasantly surprised when she saw the princess offering up to go with her. At that point in her life, Corrin was no stranger to visiting what she once considered unnecessarily bureaucratic stores (pharmacies in this world, according to her, made getting medicine too annoying and she had no idea why she couldn't simply get one from the shelves and pay for it), but she was happy to have some company.

They met at the hotel's entrance and took a cab to Gamyga mall, with Peach insisting that they should go there because she could get Corrin a discount at the pharmacy there, since she was a VIP client. The Nohrian princess kept saying that that wasn't necessary, but Peach insisted on the favor, saying that she still felt terrible for potentially putting her friend in danger.

"It wasn't your fault, Peach," Corrin said as the cab approached the open space mall's entrance. "There's no way you could have predicted that this would happen!"

"I'm not taking no for an answer," Peach said, hands delicately placed on her lap. "Besides, we can go straight to Madame Celeste's shop after you're done buying your medicine. We really need to clear some things up with her."

Corrin had no rebuttal and simply nodded in agreement. She should have known that her friend would be that stubborn, so she accepted the favor and thanked her. They got out of the cab once it arrived at the front of the mall, split the ride's price in two and made their way to the pharmacy. Since it was still rather early in the morning, the mall was oddly empty, giving Corrin a very eerie and surreal feeling, as she was not used to seeing the place that quiet. She could see a Mii here and there, but she was almost sure that those were employees from the stores and not actual customers.

She followed Peach until they reached Recovery Pharma & Co., the pharmacy that the princess had mentioned, and was relieved to see that it was already running. With the mall still getting ready to operate, she was a bit worried that they would have to wait for the store to open, but that proved to not be the case. Once inside, Peach pointed at the end of the store and told her that one there would be a clerk at the balcony that would attend her. She then told her that she would meet Corrin later at the cashier, since she had some hair products to buy, and was quick to disappear into the cosmetic aisle. She paid no mind to the thought that maybe Peach had other motives to bring her here, them being that she also had an excuse to see into errands that she had been procrastinating, and walked towards the balcony.

There were two people there, one being the attending store clerk, a rather meek looking Toad that looked to be in his middle ages, and the other being a tall, elegant woman in a red dress. She had her back to Corrin, which made only her long, silky brown locks visible.

"Wait, that can't be..." she mumbled as she thought she recognized the woman.

"Uh?"

"Laura?"

Laura turned around, her face showing as much of a surprise as Corrin's. For a moment, the woman seemed to forget that she was talking to the clerk Toad and she happily walked towards Corrin.

"Corrin, hi!" Laura greeted, flashing her a sharp, white smile. "What a coincidence, uh! What brings you here?"

"I woke up with with a nasty headache and was out of painkillers," Corrin explained. "What about you? Are you also not feeling well?"

"Oh, no, this is not for me. It's for a friend of mine. She hasn't been feeling well... can't even get out of bed, the poor thing."

"That's too bad..." she said. "I hope she recovers soon."

"I'm sure she will, I'm doing everything I can to help her, after all," Laura said, her optimism and smile almost contagious. "But I don't want to keep you waiting with a headache. You're here to buy some painkillers, right?"

Corrin thanked her as Laura stepped aside so the Toad could attend her. She still couldn't believe on the coincidence of meeting her here, of all places, and this early in the morning. Laura seemed to be in such a good mood that it started to rub on her, which proved to be a small relief as she concentrated less on her headache. Laura made small chat while they waited for the Toad to come back from the back store's stock with Corrin's order, asking small questions about her fight today, how it was to share the same slot with another version of herself, how it was to interact with other fighters after a heated match, little things that felt like she was genuinely interested in knowing about Corrin, without feeling too intrusive.

Laura was a sweet person, and beautiful as well! Corrin was genuinely happy to meet her again. Once she got her painkillers, they made their way to the cashier, where Peach waited for Corrin with a puzzled look on her face. Who was that woman with her? From the looks of things, they seemed to be well acquainted, but she couldn't recall Corrin mentioning someone like that woman to her. Peach was well-experienced in knowing about her friend's social circles, she should know who that woman was.

"Hey, Peach," Corrin said, waving at her.

"H-hello," Peach answered, tilting her head. "Corrin, who is this? I don't think we've met."

"My name is Laura," the woman answered, bowing her head politely. "It's is a pleasure to meet you."

"My, you are polite," the princess giggled. "It's a pleasure to meet you as well. Are you a friend of Corrin's?"

"We've met yesterday at a coffee shop," Corrin explained. "And now, by chance, we've met again! What a strange coincidence, no?"

"Coincidence, uh?" Peach muttered, not being able to hide the suspicion in her voice. "I suppose it is. Life is a funny thing."

Her suspicion did not go by unnoticed by Laura, who, in the princess's eyes, seemed to drop for a second her pleasant expression, only to go back to smiling right after that.

"Well, I don't want to be of bother to you two," Laura said, walking towards one of the empty cashiers. "It was nice to meet you, Peach. See you around, Corrin!"

"See you, Laura!"

They waited for her to pay for her friend's medicines and leave the store, before checking out their items themselves. Peach watched Laura walk away from the pharmacy before turning to Corrin, trying to force a smile.

"She seems… nice," she said. "Laura, I mean."

"She is, isn't she?" Corrin agreed. "The city is so big, I can't believe we've ran into each other like this in such little time."

A big coincidence or Laura was just a really dedicated fan following her friend's steps, Peach couldn't decide in what she believed. She wanted to believe that it was a coincidence, but her more cynical side, a side that most did not believe she had, told her that that woman was a big fan of Corrin and had been following her to get noticed by her favorite fighter. It was too early to take that conclusion though, and regardless of what she thought, she did not want to come across as unnecessarily negative.

"Anyway, now that we're done here, let's go see Madame Celeste," Peach said, watching as Corrin opened the container with the painkillers and swallowed two pills. "I'm pretty sure that she has already opened her shop."

"Oh, yeah! You're right, let's go!"

Once they reached the underground floor, they saw that out of the few shops there, Celeste's was the only one that was already open for business. The first thing that Corrin noticed when they entered the shop was that the place seemed to have a more positive energy than the last time she had been there. Sure, it was still dusty, clustered with foreign objects and items that she couldn't comprehend what they were for and the light was still too dim, but something about the atmosphere felt less hostile than before.

Maybe she was just imagining things…

"Welcome, welcome to my store, dearies!" a raspy, high-pitched voice beamed from behind the counter.

Corrin and Peach turned their attention to where the voice came from. Walking from behind the dusty counter was an old Magikoopa with a crooked back and glasses with lenses so thick that it made her beady black eyes look twice as large, unlike her loose golden robes that dragged through the floor, which made her look smaller than she already was. No wonder Peach was worried when she heard of the description of the woman that Corrin visited, it had nothing to do with the real Madame Celeste! Even between Magikoopas, she stood out, with her back arched, her heavy make-up that tried to hide her many wrinkles and give the illusion of youth and the massive gold earring that raised some questions about what were they attached to, since she had no visible ears.

"Princess, it's been a while since you've visited me!" Madame Celeste exclaimed, dragging her feet as fast as she could as she walked towards her with extended arms. "How have you been? Who is this lovely girl by your side? Is she a friend?"

"I've been doing fine, thank you for asking," Peach said and then gestured her hand to Corrin. "Celeste, this is my friend, Corrin. We participate in that fighting tournament I keep mentioning to you, remember?"

"The Super Bash Sisters tournament?"

"Something like that."

"Ah, I see," the Magikoopa grinned. "It is nice to meet you, Corrin!"

"N-nice to meet you too," she stuttered, still feeling weird over meeting the real fortune-teller.

"So, are you girls here for me to read your fortune? Or just shopping? Because I have just received a new batch of refreshing herbs and-"

"No, no, nothing of the sort," Peach interrupted her, raising her hand.

"Madame Celeste, I have already visited your shop before," Corrin said, bringing the Magikoopa's attention to her. "Peach had recommended you to me, but..."

"She did?" Madame Celeste clasped her hands in glee. "I'm so happy to know that! But I don't remember you visiting me, dear. When was that?"

Corrin told her everything, from the moment that she stepped inside the store, the encounter with the strange woman, to the strange visions that she had after the woman's supposed reading of her fortune. Madame Celeste's jaw dropped the more she listened, which was not a good sign to the sliver of hope that Corrin had in the possibility of the strange woman being in some way a helper or apprentice.

"Unbelievable..." the old Magikoopa mumbled. "No, I have no such thing as a helper, I have no idea who this woman could be!"

"But where were you when I visited the shop?" Corrin asked.

"Did you visit during lunch hour?"

"No."

"Well, then..." she shook her head. "I can't recall leaving the shop during working hours and even when I do leave the shop, I usually leave it locked, so… Hmm..."

"Think a little harder, please," Peach pressed on. "What were you doing two days ago?"

"Hmm..."

"Can't you remember?" Corrin asked, getting more and more worried as she saw the Magikoopa lightly knock on her own head.

"...Ah! I remember!"

"What was it?"

"I mean, I think I remember, which isn't a lot, because part of it feels like a blank," Madame Celeste said as she scratched her head. "I remember cleaning the shop- Hey, don't laugh, young princess! I really was!"

"He he ha ha, I'm sorry," Peach giggled, covering her mouth. "But you can't convince me that this shop has seen a mop and a bucket of water in weeks!"

"Believe what you want, but I am telling the truth!" she angrily retorted, fist shaking. "Anyway, Corrin, I was cleaning the shop a little before you arrived, but then I sensed this smell. It was almost unnoticeable, but sweet enough to peak my senses. I had no idea where it was coming from and it sure wasn't coming from the cleaning products. When I least expected, I blacked out and woke up hours later behind the balcony!"

"Oh, my!" Peach gasped, along with Corrin. "Are you alright?"

"I am, deary, thank you for worrying," Madame Celeste said. "I thought that I was so exhausted that I passed out, but now that I've heard your story… I think that someone knocked me out and impersonated me."

"But why go through all of this trouble?" Corrin pondered, brows furrowing with worry. "Why would this person do this?"

There was a grim moment of silence between them, as no one knew the answer to Corrin's question. The more she thought about the situation, the more afraid she got. For the woman's plan to work, she had to know Corrin's steps, she had to know that she was coming to the shop to have her fortune read and she had to know that she didn't know how Madame Celeste looked. Worst of all, what guaranteed her that the woman wasn't still watching her? Corrin already had to worry with strange visions that wanted to trick her into harming herself, now she had to worry about a possible stalker as well?

"Corrin, you look pale," Peach commented, also worried. "What's the matter?"

"Dear, you might want to sit down," Madame Celeste suggested.

"No, no, it's okay, I don't need to sit down," Corrin said, her voice still shaky. "M-Madame Celeste, ever since I visited that woman, I've been having strange visions of people calling out for me."

"What are they like?"

"Kind, but very deceiving," she answered, meekly. "Do you think that this could be the work of that woman?"

"I think anything is possible, I wouldn't be surprised if this is a result of a curse that she inflicted upon you."

"C-curse?!"

Oh, for the love of the stars!

"We still don't know if that's the case!" Peach huffed, annoyed at how oblivious the fortune-teller was being regarding Corrin's anxiety. "Curse or not, do you think that you might have something that can help her out?"

"I don't know the origin, nor the details of this curse, so there's nothing I can do to get rid of it," Madame Celeste said. "I'm a fortune-teller, not a miracle maker!"

"Oh, I see..." Corrin whispered.

Madame Celeste then walked towards the other side of the counter and disappeared behind it, only to return from it a couple of seconds later with a red, translucent crystal-like object in her hand that seemed to glimmer in the dim light.

"All I can do is offer you this token of protection," she said, handing it over to Corrin, who hesitantly took it. "This will at least offer you protection from those visions."

"Madame Celeste, that's a star bit," Peach pointed out.

"So?"

"That's Luma food!"

"Aaaand it's also considered a protective charm from where I come from," Madame Celeste quickly said, nervously looking at Corrin. "Guaranteed ghost repellent and it's free!"

Thankfully for the fortune-teller, Corrin at that point had more things in her mind than the need to ponder on the validity of her claims. She simply thanked Madame Celeste for the information and left the shop, being followed by Peach, who was still annoyed at how little they had accomplished regarding on finding a solution to her friend's problem.

Corrin could only think of what she had gotten herself into.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Madame Celeste, you are useless.
> 
> I'm sorry for the loads of dialogue in this chapter, but I wanted to dedicate it to explanations and showing more of Corrin and Peach's friendship. I really like the idea of Peach being almost like a sister figure to her.


	8. Grave encounters

Kamui wondered for a moment if he talked too much. He was not the kind of person to doubt himself, he saw himself as very sociable and extroverted, but "talking too much" was never the kind of flaw he thought that he would have. However, judging but he was the only one saying anything in the past twenty minutes, with Ike eating maybe his third plate and nodding his head, it was hard to not wonder if the problem was him. Unfortunately for both of them, the problem was that Ike was more interested in listening to Kamui talk and eating, instead of thinking on something interesting to say, which was proving to not work out in his favor as it seemed that even the extroverted Kamui was starting to show that he was running out of stories about his past to tell.

"So, umm… yeah, and…" Kamui continued, hesitantly.

By the goddess, he wished that he was better at conversations! Ike needed to also make an effort, or he would sound like an uninterested fool. He swallowed his last steak bite, just as Kamui finished talking about the beautiful scenery from a country that he visited called Nestra and cleared his throat. He wondered how he could continue the conversation and thought for a moment if he should tell him about the time where he teamed up with Marth and Meta Knight to stop the giant cyborg Galleon ten years ago, though he was not sure if Kamui had already heard all the stories regarding the time the Smashers went on a journey to save their world from the Subspace threat.

He still thought it was a good story. He would just let Kamui finish his part first.

"Despite all of that, the best part of Nestra was meeting Kaden," Kamui said, almost oblivious to Ike's struggle. "He was a funny guy."

"Who's Kaden?"

"He was a Kitsune, leader of his tribe."

"What's a Kitsune?"

"Oh, right, I forgot to explain," he said, a bit flustered. "Kitsune are a species of shapeshifters and can transform from people to foxes. They lived as a tribe inside the territory of my country."

"Ah, so they are fox Laguz," Ike said, happy that the conversation was heading towards territory he could easily talk about. "Interesting, there were no such thing as fox Laguz from where I come from."

"I have no idea what a Laguz is."

"They are exactly like the Kitsune. Shapeshifters."

"And were there many kinds of Laguz in your world?" Kamui asked, resting his elbows on the table.

"Many, but there was usually a lot of conflicts between them and the Beorc," he paused for a moment as he noticed Kamui tilting his head. "Uh, Beorc is the term for non-shapeshifters. Should have explained that."

"It's okay!"

"Uh, now that I think about it, Kamui," Ike said, scratching his head as he focused on his features, from his sharp eye pupils, to his pointed ears. "Back in my world, you would be considered a Laguz too, since you can transform into a dragon. Sure, your dragon form doesn't look like any other dragon I've seen before, but you still would."

"Heh, imagine if we met there," he chuckled.

"That probably wouldn't have happened, because dragons from Goldoa did everything that they could to isolate themselves from the rest of the world."

"Oh… well, good thing that that's not the case then! I already had enough isolation from the world in the past..."

"Yeah, you're right."

"And, um," Kamui said, uncharacteristically shyly to Ike. "I'm really happy that I met you, so..."

"Is everything okay?"

If Kamui were to be honest with himself, he had to restrain himself from blurting out how in love he was with Ike and how he wanted them to get married, but that was not how things worked in this universe and he didn't want to look like a fool. He wished things were as simple as they were back home sometimes.

"Ike, I know that this will sound weird, considering we're already out, eating breakfast together, but..." he said, fidgeting his hands under the plastic table. "Do you want to go out and see a movie with me tomorrow?"

For a moment, Ike wondered why Kamui was acting so coy, since just a few seconds ago he was the one carrying the conversation in the most upbeat tone. Why was he nervous about asking him out, since that was what they were doing the past couple of days? For a brief moment, Ike was left confused.

It was then when his hand almost slapped his forehead. Kamui was asking him out on a date!

"Sure!" he blurted out, uncharacteristically loudly to Kamui. "Sure, let's go watch a movie!"

At that, Kamui couldn't help but open a big smile, as the mere sight of Ike looking flustered was enough to send butterflies in his stomach. In a way, all of that felt like a dream, with him and Ike getting to know each other better and becoming friends in such a short period of time, after one humiliating defeat from Kamui's part. He spent so much time admiring him from afar in the past couple of years, that getting closer to him now felt unnaturally simple, almost as if he was in a dream.

He couldn't wait to tell everything to Corrin.

"Ah, I forgot about Corrin!" Kamui exclaimed. "I was supposed to go with her on her visit to that fraudulent fortune-teller! What if she went in alone?"

"Kamui, if Corrin decided to go alone, she's more than capable of dealing with that Madame Celeste person. She doesn't need you coddling her."

"You're not wrong, but..." he said, now sinking in his chair. "I'm worried about her, that's all."

"I know you are," Ike gave him a reassuring smile. "She'll be fine, Kamui. If she feels like she is in need of company, she will call you."

"...Yeah, you're right."

Yet, Corrin didn't call. Breakfast ended uneventfully, with each one paying for what they consumed, despite Kamui's insistence that he paid for everything, and them making their way back to the Smash Hotel. The Hoshidan prince wondered why his friend seemed to simply forget about him, but maybe it was as Ike said, maybe she didn't need him. He could only hope that, were she to find the real fortune-teller, that she wouldn't fall for the woman's tricks on why she should get a reading just to make sure.

Fortunately, Madame Celeste's incapability of helping Corrin left the girl so frustrated that she couldn't consider listening to the Magikoopa any longer after getting the supposed protective charm, if she could call it that. Peach was also left frustrated with how little help they got, not to mention that now she couldn't bring herself to promote the fortune-teller to her friends anymore, it didn't feel right anymore. It was a real shame, but there was nothing that she could do about it. After Corrin said her goodbyes, as she had to return to the hotel to get herself ready for today's battles, Peach decided to stick around Gamyga mall for a little longer, calling Daisy over for some coffee. When her friend answered with a "sorry, can't go now, I'm busy with training", the princess could only huff in annoyance and have coffee all by herself.

It was her day off and Peach found herself very alone. For someone who was usually surrounded with people, that was a weird feeling for her.

The mall started to get more crowded as it approached its business hours, so she decided to go buy something to eat before she had to deal with any lines. She wondered if they still sold those delicious chocolate muffins at the Rick's Coffee Emporium, as it's been a long time since she ate there. Peach mused on what to eat as she made her way to the coffee shop, distracted from her surroundings and putting way too much weight on the simple decision on what to buy. She was so distracted, in fact, that once she entered the shop, it took her longer than normal to realize that there were two familiar faces there, drinking their morning coffee at one of the many vacant round tables.

Peach never expected to find Richter Belmont and Bayonetta chatting like they were old friends. Actually, she did expect to see Richter being friends with anyone in the Smash roster, but she did not expect the same for Bayonetta, who was one of the most aloof people that she had ever met. Not even Peach could break her out of her shell in the past and nobody could say that she didn't try her hardest. She needed to know what was going on!

The princess approached them as if she didn't want anything, just passing by to give them a hello.

"Princess Peach, hi!" Richter greeted, giving her that charming smile that made Peach melt on the inside.

"Hi, Richter!" she greeted back and gave a curt nod to Bayonetta. "Bayonetta, hello."

Bayonetta returned with a look of acknowledgment and continued to be absorbed in her tea, typical reaction expected from her. That did not bother her, but she had Richter to thank for, he made the interaction less awkward.

"What a coincidence to find you two here," Peach said, clasping her hands together. "May I sit?"

"Sure, pull up a chair," Richter said, pointing to the nearest chair available.

"Don't mind if I do!"

Bayonetta took a deep breath and continued to sip her tea as Richter and Peach chatted, her piercing gray eyes wandering off, her gaze going from the cream colored walls, to the relaxed baristas behind the balcony at the other side of the room. What a bore! She only agreed to meet Richter this early in the morning to discuss better where they could start searching for Laura after Richter's encounter with her before, but now the nosy princess of the Mushroom Kingdom was taking more of her time than necessary.

Richter was such a soft-hearted fool.

"So what are you two doing here together?" Peach asked, not bothering with how direct to the point she sounded.

"We are discussing about the upcoming double tournament," Bayonetta said, before Richter could come up with a lie.

"I didn't know that you two would be fighting together."

"We haven't decided yet," Richter said, catching up. "But I was also thinking of asking Lucina if she wanted to be my partner, if things don't work out for us."

"Oh, right… Lucina..." Peach said, her deflated mood not passing by unnoticed by the other two smashers. "She's a good fighter, I guess."

"Is… everything okay with you two?"

"Everything's fine," she replied, sharply. "Anyway, I forgot to get my order, I will be right back."

As Peach got up from her seat and walked away in a hurry, Bayonetta put her cup down and slightly bent forward, her face showing clear displease with the situation.

"Richter, get rid of her," Bayonetta whispered.

"She's not so bad," he whispered back.

"I want to get this discussion out of the way as soon as possible and we can't have that with her around!"

"Yeah, I know..."

"So where do you think we should look for her?"

"After seeing me on the subway yesterday when I was going back to the hotel, I can say for certain that she will be avoiding that area."

"So any place but there?"

"It's a start."

"This city is bloody huge, that is not a big help."

Richter shrugged his shoulders, unable to give a more positive answer. That was not to say that he was feeling pessimistic, as that was still a clue, no matter how small it was, to find Laura, but there was nothing that he could say that would make his partner feel more optimistic. Bayonetta let out an annoyed sigh, but also didn't say anything else on the matter. Peach eventually returned with a plastic cup on her hands, but did not sit down or show any attempt that she would be staying.

"Well, it was nice meeting you, but I got to go now," she said, taking a sip. "I have a few errands to run."

"Oh, alright then."

"See you around Richter. Bayonetta."

The princess walked away, satisfied with her answers. They served no purpose other than to satisfy her curiosity, but she was still surprised that Richter and Bayonetta were considering working together for the upcoming double tournament. What a scary combination, Peach thought. As for the aforementioned pair, they let out a sigh of relief as they saw her exiting the shop.

"Looks like you got worried for nothing," Richter said, hiding a smirk.

"Spare me the lecture, Richter."

"Anyway, looks like Laura knows that I'm after her," he said, crossing his arms. "But she most probably doesn't know who you are, Bayonetta. So you're more likely to find her."

"Here's hoping that she falls right into my lap."

"Ha ha."

\---------

The loud cheers from the crowd of spectators was loud, loud enough for Robin to hear them from the preparation room below the stadium. She closed her book and looked at the clock on the wall, wondering if Corrin would arrive in time, as their fight was scheduled to start in five minutes and she had yet to show up. With a sigh, the tactician slumped over the velvet marine blue couch, book clutched to her chest and her gaze wandering the room, going from the lockers meant for whe fighters had personal belongings that needed to be stored before battles started, to the small TV glued to the wall that was barely used, the six light bulbs on the ceiling that overwhelmed the room with a strong light. Robin couldn't help but wonder how Corrin was, Rob's report on how Corrin asked for his help haunting her mind more than she would like to admit. Though haunting would be too strong of a word for her, she still couldn't help but keep creating hypothesis after hypothesis over the Nohrian princess's problems.

Those voices that she heard, inviting her to her death, the whole concept sounded a lot like Rob's problems from three years ago. They also sounded a lot like when Grima almost tried to overpower her, back when she lived in Ylisse. She could easily just say that it was the work of an evil dragon, it wasn't as if it was any secret that Corrin had dragon blood in her veins. Hell, she WAS a dragon! Yet, blaming everything on a cursed bloodline didn't feel right, it felt too simplistic, not helped by her lack of knowledge on the rest of her story.

After that battle, she would do some research on her biography. She simply had to!

"Robin, I'm so sorry for taking so long!"

Robin jumped up from the couch, startled by the loud bang of the chromatic door being flung open by a breathless Corrin, hand clutching her chest and face red from running. Without asking anything, Robin just walked towards the small, round table at the corner of the room and served Corrin a glass of water, who took her offer and gulped the water down.

"Haaaa… thank you, Robin," Corrin sighed. "Again, I'm so sorry if I made you worry, the subway stopped working and it took a long time to have it work again."

"It's alright, I'm just glad that you arrived in time," Robin said, giving her a sympathetic smile. "Well, then, shall we go?"

They left the prep room and walked towards the end of the extensive corridor that led to a colorful door with a black cross on it. As they entered the dark, almost empty room that consisted of only a screen and a platform on the floor, the screen showed a list of the available stages from that stadium in particular. Robin selected the stage Fountain of Dreams, triggering the platform to start glowing, a sign that everything was ready. Robin and Corrin shook hands and wished each other good luck, before each stepping on the platform and being transported to the stage.

**3… 2… 1… GO!**

The crowd cheered as Robin and Corrin made their entrance upon the stage, bringing both of them a sense of confidence and slightly raising their morale. As Corrin expected, Robin started the fight by charging her thunder tome, muttering the words of the spells as her book glowed with the sparks of electricity as the spell went from Thunder, Elthunder and Arcthunder. Before she could have a full Thoron spell charged, Corrin ran towards her and performed a small hop, transforming her free hand into a long spear and lunging it towards where Robin stood. Just as she planned, the tactician was forced to jump backwards in order to avoid being stabbed, which broke her concentration just in time. As Corrin swiftly landed on the watery ground, her hand transformed back to normal and she ran towards Robin, ready to jump and slash her sword at her.

As soon as she saw Robin quickly change from her yellow tome to a red one and raise her arms, Corrin was forced to stop on her tracks and raise her shield up.

"Arcfire!"

Robin swung her arms in an arc motion, creating a big ball of flame and flinging it at Corrin's shield, slowly melting it away. Because the princess was so occupied defending herself from not getting burned by the fire, she could nothing against Robin as she ran towards her and used a binding spell to keep her in place, her shield ineffective against grabbing moves. She barely had time to struggle, before the tactician slammed her on the ground and brought her Levin sword down on her stomach, sending jolts of electricity through her entire body and knocking her away from Robin, who took these few seconds to finish charging up Thoron. Corrin landed on her back with a groan of pain, but was forced to quickly get back to her feet as she saw her opponent running towards her, pointing the bronze sword towards her, like a pegasus knight ready to impale her foe.

She side stepped just in time to avoid the blade and managed to get behind Robin's back. With another short hop, Corrin sprouted her silver dragon wings and used them to hit her before she had any time to set up her shield, launching her into the air. Despite hitting her as hard as she could, Corrin saw that Robin still found enough strength to use her launch as a way to get on one of the platforms being held up by the water streams. As she retracted her wings, Corrin jumped towards the platform and tried to slash Robin with her blade, only to have her movement parried with her opponent's Levin sword. Robin once again used a spell to bind her, this time beating her up twice before throwing her backwards and off the stage. She then double jumped to where Corrin tried to recover, managing to be just above the princess's head, an open green tome in hand nad a smirk on her face.

"Elwind!" Robin shouted, swinging her free hand downwards, just inches from touching Corrin's head.

Two strong gusts of wind were shot from her hand and brutally brought Corrin down to the sea of pink clouds below the stage, their spike effect making it impossible for her to recover. With that, the score was two lives to one for Robin, meaning that if Corrin didn't turn things around and lost another life, she would lose the match. She was brought back to the stage in a second, though she took a few moments to jump out from her floating platform as she thought of a better way to approach her opponent.

Did Robin get stronger? Or was her Elwind spell always that good?

Corrin was forced to jump out of her platform as it disappeared from expired time and land on the middle platform above all others. Robin simply stood near the ledge of the stage, waiting for her opponent to come down so she could strike her with Thoron's massive jolt of electricity. She felt giddy inside, extremely satisfied with how the battle were turning into her favor. If she kept that up, she would have her first no-death win in months! Corrin, on the other hand, was more than determined to take out one of her lives now, because even if she didn't win, she wouldn't lose without giving Robin a proper headache.

She jumped to the platform below her, still refusing to touch the ground, as she knew that Robin had Thoron ready. Frustrated, Robin left her spot and jumped towards Corrin's platform, swinging the bronze sword at her, who responded to the action by dodging and jumping back to the ground. For a moment, she almost lost her balance, as her head suddenly felt very light and a wave of nausea hit her, making her drop her sword in the process. Corrin breathed heavily, hugging her stomach with one arm and using her other one to signal for Robin to stop fighting for a moment. Robin, noticing her pale face and heavy breathing, relented and got down from the platform, leaving her books and sword there, before cautiously walking towards her opponent.

"Corrin, are you alright?"

Corrin couldn't find the strength to answer her, instead focusing her gaze on their reflection in the stage crystal clear water.

"Do you need a doctor?"

Robin's voice seemed distant, as if there was a wall between them that muffled her voice. Her started pounding, not unlike the headache from earlier in the morning, except it started to get stronger as the seconds passed by, making the mere action of thinking unbearable. She could only shut her eyes and concentrate on her own breathing.

"Please, answer me!"

The world then became silent. Her headache and nausea stopped just as quickly as they appeared and Corrin felt strangely at peace, almost to an uncanny point. She straightened herself up and opened her eyes, but instead of seeing Robin's worried expression, the beautiful colors of Fountain of Dreams or the starry artificial sky, all she could see was pitch black.

"No, no, no, no..." she thought, hugging herself as she realized what was going on.

Corrin shut her eyes once again and covered her ears, dreading what was about to come. She would not give in to some strange voice this time and she would not listen to their lies. She would stay still as a statue and hope that Robin would wake up her from that awful hallucination.

"Robin, please wake me up! Please, please, please..."

 _"Corrin..."_ spoke a familiar voice from behind her.

Corrin refused to turn around and face whoever was calling her, as she feared that she would fall right into whatever trap they had prepared for her. The voice in question was very masculine sounding, strong and confident, very much like someone she used to know. Someone who she wished she had grown closer to in the past, but due to her path choices, forced them to be enemies.

No, that couldn't be...

_"So this is how you are going to treat me, my sister? By turning your back to me once again?"_

At those words, Corrin quickly spun around, any sort of resistance shattering as the sight of her older brother, Ryoma, stood before her with crossed arms. His face look slightly blurred, almost non recognizable at first glance, but the more Corrin looked at him, the more his features came into view, such as his sharp almond eyes, face framed by his dragon-like helmet, his long, wild brown hair and pure white Hoshidan robes and scarlet armor.

"Ryoma, I..."

 _"Now that is much better,"_ Ryoma smiled and extended a hand to her. _"Come here, Corrin. Let me take care of this battle for you. I will cut down anyone who dares hurt you."_

"Brother, you… you can't be real," Corrin choked on her words as a lump formed on her throat. "You are..."

_"Corrin, what is the matter?"_

"I don't want to go..."

 _"I see, so you still would rather remain distant from your family,"_ the man said, his voice showing clear disappointment. _"Very well, I will let you be. Goodbye, my sister."_

As Ryoma turned his back to her, something inside of Corrin snapped. She couldn't bear the guilt of seeing her brother distance himself from her, not again after all those years of torment and wondering if she had made the right choice to side with her other family. She couldn't let him slip away from her again! Without thinking, Corrin ran towards Ryoma, reaching her arm to him.

"Brother, wait!"

"...rrin what are you doing?!"

Before Corrin could wake up in time from her trance, she jumped off the stage, losing her last life and handling the victory to Robin.

**GAME!**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Why, yes, I did make the fight where Corrin enters a dream-like state take place in Fountain of Dreams. This is not supposed to be symbolism, I just really love Fountain of Dreams. It was about time that this stage got remastered and I couldn't be happier!


	9. No need to look into the past

"Corrin, what in the world was that?"

Corrin shook her head and looked away, too ashamed to face her former opponent. Robin sighed and sat by her side on the couch, the uncomfortable silence increasing between them as the seconds went by, building up a pressure that made the already small prep room feel even smaller.

"I don't know how to explain it to you without sounding crazy," she said, finally breaking the silence.

"Did you have a vision?"

"What?!"

"Look, Corrin, I know what's going on," Robin confessed. "Rob told me everything."

"He did what?!" she exclaimed, shooting up from the couch. "I asked him to not tell anyone! How could he do this?!"

"Corrin, breathe."

"I..."

"Rob only told me everything because he wanted my help on how to help you," she explained. "He even asked me to not mention this to you, but after today's fight, it was hard to feign ignorance."

Corrin let out a sigh and sat on the couch again, burying her face in her hands. Robin already knew what was going on, which made her wonder if any of her friends who already knew of her problems also told others about what was going on with her in an attempt to get help. She wouldn't be surprised if it ended up reaching Master Hand eventually.

"I didn't tell anyone else, neither did Rob," Robin said, almost as if reading her thoughts. "You can trust us."

It wasn't as if she had any other choice at that point, Corrin thought.

"I saw my older brother, Ryoma."

"Your brother?"

"He was… calling out for me," she said, looking away from Robin. "He seemed so happy to see me at first, but then..."

"Did he threaten you?"

"No! No, he didn't, he..." Corrin sighed. "He… got really upset when I said I didn't want to follow him. He sounded so disappointed, so sad..."

"Wait, you told him that you didn't want to go?"

"Yes, I did. Didn't you hear?"

"No, all you did was stand still like a statue and then run to the edge of the stage," Robin explained. "I barely had any time to react before you jumped off."

"How strange… I mean, more than usual."

"What about the other visions? Were they of one of your siblings as well?"

"No, I don't know who those people were," she said, frustrated. "They seemed familiar somehow, but I couldn't figure it out who they were. Their faces were too blurry."

"Hmm… So they were all of familiar people, uh?"

"It seems so," Corrin said, finally facing her. "What are you thinking?"

"At the moment, at how I need to tell everything you just told me to Rob," Robin shook her head. "I can't give you a concrete hypothesis at the moment, Corrin, I'm sorry."

"It's okay, I appreciate that you are trying to help me."

Their conversation seemed to brighten up Corrin's mood a little, at least, that was Robin wanted to believe. Ever since the disaster that was their battle, she was acting more quiet, lacking the usual energy that she was known to have. Had Robin not stopped her after their battle ended, Corrin would probably had left without saying a word. What worried her the most however, was that things were a lot worse than she thought, that Corrin had little to no control over her actions when going through a hallucination episode. At least with the one she just had, she was in a controlled environment and it was impossible for her to put herself into serious danger when inside a stage.

If she was left alone in any other circumstance, however… It seemed that only now Robin realized the true gravity of the situation. She and Rob had work to do.

\---------

Ike let out a grunt of disapproval as he checked his ranking on the big, bright blue screen at the entrance of the stadium. The current tournament was about to end in a week, so there was no way that he could move up on the ranking in time. While being in 19th place was not bad when one would consider that he was competing against 79 other fighters, Ike was still frustrated that he did not place among the top 5 fighters, something that hasn't happened eve since the second tournament of the fourth edition of Smash. He could only hope that he, Kamui and Corrin would do better on the next tournament.

He shook his head and prepared to leave, thinking of heading to the gym to train for a couple of hours, since he had no other plans for the day and would benefit from preparing for the next tournament, when he spotted Pit walking towards him, or rather, dragging his feet towards him, shoulders hanging and white wings deflated, an uncharacteristic pessimistic expression on his face. Without exchanging a words, Ike turned his attention back to the blue screen and searched for the angel's name.

"So it's that bad, uh?" Ike asked once he spotted Pit at 60th place.

"When did everyone get so good at this game?" Pit asked. "Even Lady Palutena got faster and stronger, and she was really slow before!"

"Should you be calling out your boss like this?"

"Only when she's busy and can't hear me."

Normally Ike would cut the conversation short and say that he was off to practice, but there was something in Pit's defeated face that softened him up enough to lend him an ear while they went to the nearest ice cream so Pit could drown his sorrows. Ike himself didn't buy anything, as he was not fond of overly sweet food, but by the size of the sundae his friend bought, he knew that Pit's depression would last at least a week, so he sat with him at the most secluded table in the shop so Pit could have some privacy with his wallowing. Not that it mattered, since there were hardly any consumers there at that moment, but neither of them put any thought into it.

"I just don't understand," Pit whined, stuffing a spoon full of strawberry ice cream in his mouth. "I was doing fine before, you know? Now it feels like even my fans are leaving me."

"Pit, you have some of the most loyal fans I have ever seen," Ike said as he tried to ignore the fact that Pit was complaining with his mouth full. "They won't stop supporting you because of a bad placement."

"I hope so..."

"Just focus on the next tournament and I'm sure you'll do better."

"I'm teaming up with Peach, so I'm not worried about the next tournament," he said. "I'm bummed about this one."

"Let it go, Pit."

Pit grumbled something incomprehensible and continued to eat his ice cream. Seeing him in that defeated state really put Ike's problems into perspective and, for a moment, made him wonder if he should really be complaining about his own placement. He soon got rid of those thoughts, as he preferred to focus on the small television glued to the wall in front of him transmitting the fight between Corrin and Robin on Fountain of Dreams. There was no sound coming from the television, thanks to the low ambient music from the shop getting the priority, but he didn't need what he considered unnecessary commentary to understand what was going on.

He was surprised to see that Robin had the upper hand in that fight, since lately both she and Rob were struggling to get any winning matches, especially in a fight against Corrin, who was among one of the top ten best fighters in the tournament. Ike couldn't hide the surprise in his face as he watched Robin pummel her to the ground with an Elwind spell, a beautiful execution had it not been for the fact that Corrin could have dodged that attack had she been paying more attention. Pit noticed his expression and turned around to see what caught Ike's attention enough to make him stop paying attention to his misery.

As Corrin returned to the stage, Ike noticed her increasing odd behavior. It started with her contorting and hugging her stomach, as if she was hit by wave of nausea, motioning for Robin to stop the fight. While it was not common for fighters to suddenly feel ill during matches, it still wasn't unheard of of matches being canceled and postponed due to health issues. Ike himself had this issue once during Brawl, but that was a long time ago. What really alarmed him was what came next, when Corrin suddenly stood up straight, any signs of pain disappearing and how Robin appeared show confusion over her turning her back to her. Corrin's arms were limp and it seemed like she was in a trance, not unlike…

"Wait, Corrin!" Ike blurted out, scarring Pit, who jumped from his seat.

"Ike, do you want to give me a heart attack?!"

Corrin ran to the ledge of the stage and jumped off, ending the fight and the transmission, with the channel preferring to quickly show what was going on between Inkling and King K. Rool.

"Why would she do that?" Pit asked, turning back to Ike. "She wasn't losing that badly, she could have turned things around."

"...Yeah, I don't understand either."

"Wait, really? By the way you reacted, you seemed to know what was going on."

"No, no I don't know. I saw Corrin ready to run and assumed that she would jump."

Pit glared at him with shifty eyes, but ended up accepting his answer and went back to his melting ice cream. As much as Ike wouldn't mind telling Pit what was going on, he did promise Corrin that he would keep her visions a secret and he intended to keep that promise. The angel was a good person, but he could not keep a secret if his life depended on it. In the end, Ike could only wonder if Kamui ended up watching the fight. He probably did and was worried sick because of it.

Ike turned out to be right, because once Kamui watched his friend jump and end the fight from his room's television, he didn't waste any time in getting out of bed and calling her over to meet him at the entrance of the hotel, storming through the large hotel corridors of the third floor in hurried steps. He met Rob inside one of the elevators, carrying a couple of gray folders with his and Corrin's names on them that caught his attention.

"Ah, Kamui!" Rob said, giving a smile. "Just the person I needed to see!"

"Hey, Rob," Kamui said, stepping inside the elevator and pointing at the gray folders. "What are those?"

"Yours and Corrin's entire written biography," Rob explained, handling him one of the folders. "I assume that Corrin has already talked to you about what she's going through, right?"

"Yeah… she did," he said, his low key bitterness coming back as he remembered that Corrin would rather ask Rob for help instead of him. "What do you intend to do with this?"

"Research."

Rob explained to Kamui as they made their way to the hotel's entrance that the first thing that he and Robin wanted to make sure was that Corrin's visions didn't come from an unresolved issue from the past, that it was essential to understand their history if they wanted to thin out the possibilities of what could be tormenting her. Kamui tried to reason with him that he doubted that there was anything in Corrin's and his pasts that could be the cause of her visions, but Rob insisted on carrying out the research.

They met both Corrin and Robin at the busy entrance hall after a ten minute wait. Kamui's bitterness softened as he saw his friend's withdrawn face, like she had a streak of bad nights of sleep, and how her posture showed her to be very tired. Robin showed an apparent discomfort of someone who had no idea what to do, but still remained by her side the whole way just in case anything bad happened.

The four fighters found a nice spot on one of the many old-fashioned, maroon colored couches on the hall and sat down. Corrin reluctantly informed what exactly happened during her fight with Robin, her voice wavering and her eyes constantly avoiding looking at them, mostly at Kamui, in the eyes. While Rob and Robin seemed more focused on the information given, Kamui couldn't help but wonder if Corrin even wanted him to be there. He noticed how subtlety she inched away from him when they sat on the couch and how short and vague her answers were when he asked her anything regarding the incident.

"Maybe I'm just imagining things," he whispered.

"Did you say something, Kamui?" Robin asked.

"Nothing, just thinking out loud."

"Alright, so far we know that Corrin is being visited by visions of familiar people," Rob said, in an attempt to summarize everything. "Even if only one of three of them she recognized."

"Yes..."

"Maybe when can figure it out who were the other two people with the files," Robin mused.

"What good will it do if we know that?!" Kamui snapped, bringing their attention to him. "Corrin needs to know what caused this to happen and what needs to be done, not play guess with what kind of ghosts are haunting her!"

"Kamui, you don't need to shout," Corrin said, her tone harsh.

"I get what you're saying, Kamui," Robin said. "But we can't ignore the fact that there is some connection between Corrin's visions and her past."

"The fortune-teller that I visited said that I was cursed," Corrin suddenly said. "I don't know if she's right, but..."

"No, that can't be it, that's crazy talk," Kamui immediately said.

"What is it then?!" Corrin asked, growing more irritated, finally looking at him in the eye. "I know that it sounds absurd, but do you have any idea of what might be going on, aside from thinking that I'm going crazy?"

"I don't think-"

"How about you two let Robin and I do the research and then we can tell you what we discovered tomorrow?" Rob interrupted, hoping to cut off a possible banter.

"Yeah… yeah, how about that?" Robin stuttered, feeling as uncomfortable as her husband. "Rob and I can take care of the research. Kamui, just concentrate on taking care of Corrin."

"And Corrin, please be patient, we're all trying the best that we can to help you," Rob complemented.

Both prince and princess agreed and, as much as they didn't want to admit to themselves, felt certain relief over not having to see what happened in each other's past. Kamui reasoned with himself by thinking that it was for the best, that having Corrin take a look into the path that he chose would only upset her even more than she already was. As for Corrin, she didn't want Kamui to know all of the terrible things that she did in the past in order to reach the goal of ending the war between nations of Hoshido and Nohr. Kamui chose his birthright, to follow his mother's wishes for a peaceful world and so, to achieve that wish, he stood up against the nation that raised him and sided with a family that he knew nothing about. Corrin chose her loyalty and love for the family that raised her and so turned her weapon against her blood family when the conflict broke.

Neither of them wanted to know what could have happened if they made a different decision, but they could very well imagine and that proved to be enough for them. Maybe.

Once the night fell, it was decided that Kamui would spend the night at Corrin's room again in order to watch over her. No matter how awkward the situation was between Kamui and Corrin, it still would be risky to let her sleep alone. She watched the prince arrange the uncomfortable couch in front of the balcony's window, in the same position from last night, from her bed, legs bent over closer to her chest in an almost uncomfortable manner.

"There, now there's no way that you'll get tricked into walking over the balcony," Kamui said, his voice in a fake optimism.

"Thanks, Kamui."

There was an odd silence between them, not helped by how both seemed to be frozen in place, with Corrin not shifting from her position and Kamui seemingly incapable of sitting down. He stood awkwardly by the couch's side, one hand resting on one of its arms, while Corrin kept looking at everywhere except the man standing in front of her. It felt like an eternity until Kamui sighed and walked towards Corrin's side, who unconsciously recoiled a bit.

"Hey, Corrin, why did you say that before?" he asked.

"What do you mean?"

"About me thinking that you're going crazy," he explained, sitting at the edge of the bed. "Why do you think that?"

"Oh, that… That came in the spur of the moment."

"Do you really believe that?"

"No, I don't," she said, still avoiding eye contact. "I was irritated and didn't think before saying that."

"Well, that's a relief."

"But you really could have used better words instead of crazy talk."

"I was saying that the fortune-teller was crazy, not you!"

She doubted it, but she would not saying anything else on the matter, no matter how much that feeling that Kamui was just showing off how much better he was than her kept creeping up inside of her.

"Showing off…?" she thought, alarmed by the intrusive feeling.

Why would she think that? Kamui was not the kind of person who used other's misery to make himself look better. What an awful thing to assume of her friend!

"Corrin? You okay?"

The princess shook her head, only now realizing that there was a tear threatening to fall from her eye. She could not let her fear make her assume the worst in other, especially in Kamui. She couldn't let her emotions cloud her judgment, not like it did in the past. She had such a terrible habit of doing that.

"I'm fine, I don't know what's gotten into me," Corrin finally said, wiping away the tear with her finger.

Kamui got up and sat by her side, enveloping one arm around her tensed up shoulders and bringing her closer to him. Corrin had to fight back the sudden repulsion, the simple need to push him away, that she felt over the gesture, still confused as to what triggered that reaction, as normally she wouldn't mind (sometimes she would even enjoy) the close proximity between them.

"Corrin, everything's going to be fine," he said, touching their foreheads. "I'm not going to let anything happen to you, alright?"

She nodded and that was enough to bring Kamui a sense of peace of mind. After a couple of seconds, he let go of Corrin and went back to the couch in front of the balcony's window. With a heavy heart and the threat of her headache coming back, Corrin covered herself with the heavy, almost oppressive bed sheets and laid down, hoping that a good night of sleep would clear her mind.

"Good night, Corrin."

"Good night, Kamui..."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was shorter than usual, I'm sorry for that.


	10. Of dates, parties and wine

On the next couple of days, Kamui's worries regarding Corrin's well-being only grew the more his mind started playing out possible scenarios of her situation. He wondered what could happen if Corrin went unsupervised for a minute, like when she had to go take a bath, for example. He also couldn't help but notice how distant from him his friend seemed to be growing, with her rarely talking to him, even when they were together, or how she always seemed distracted. The prince felt utterly helpless, not helped by what both Robins told them, on the day next to Corrin's incident in Fountain of Dreams, that there wasn't anything out of the ordinary from Corrin's past that could have carried over to the realm they lived in, according to what they had researched. From what they gathered, it seemed that Corrin was right about the possible cause might being something that originated within the Smash realm, as it was unlikely that external causes from their realm might have been carried over to their current world.

They also explained that back in his world, there was a curse that affected people close to them, but at that point Kamui's head was dizzy with the verbal vomit those two gave them, that he didn't want to hear about a curse that did not affect him or his friend. Corrin herself, who was more willing to listen to the supposed curse that plagued their home world, told them that what she was going through was different than the symptoms described and didn't seem to want to further the topic. Kamui and Corrin only listened to the parts that they wanted to hear – that their past had nothing to do with the current issue – and both Robins were left frustrated that they couldn't give out all of the information that they gathered.

Kamui still couldn't figure it out why Corrin was acting so distant towards him. He wanted to protect her by any means necessary, but it was hard to do so when she seemed to push him away. He could only hope that Peach was having more luck with her than him.

"Kamui, you are spacing out again," Ike commented.

"Uh?"

"Thinking about Corrin?"

"Sorry… sorry, Ike, I was."

Ike let out a sigh, one that made Kamui feel even worse than before, but said nothing as they continued to make their way down the busy street. He understood and sympathized with Kamui's worries, but he wished that he would relax for a while. It's been so long that he did anything else that wasn't related to training, fighting or eating, that he looked forward to this date, but it was hard to enjoy it with Kamui being so absentminded and worried.

Also, he would like to get some attention from him as well.

"Corrin will be fine," Ike said as he continued look forward. "She is with Peach now."

"It's not that I don't trust Peach, it's just..."

"What?"

"I'm overthinking things, I'm sorry."

"You know, this is the fifth time just in the last hour you said you were sorry."

"I'm s-"

"I know you are."

Kamui looked at Ike, who still kept his eyes on the street ahead, his expression more serious than it should be. They were close to the street cinema that was a couple of blocks away from the coffee shop where Kamui met Robin a few days ago and that seemed to bring his attention back to the man that he had been pinning for so long. It was hard to not notice the cinema's bright yellow lights that covered the borders of the giant banner above the building's entrance, as well as the well lit movie posters on the walls, from the distance they were from it.

Despite the abundance of activity that happened on the streets, with Toads and Miis selling questionable food from poorly made food stalls and many lines being formed by many kinds of people waiting to enter whatever party that was happening simultaneously to each other, indistinguishable liquid bottles in hands, giving off a bad smell of alcohol impossible to escape, there were very few people at the entrance of the cinema.

"Ugh, you're right, I need to relax."

That seemed to brighten up Ike's mood, even if just a little. There was a small smile on his lips that made the prince feel all warm inside, though not enough to make him let go of his worries. Not that it mattered, because he asked him out to watch a movie together and by the Dawn Dragon, he would and he would have a great time! Kamui trusted Peach to keep an eye on Corrin. Maybe she would do a better job of brightening her mood, since Corrin appeared to want to push him away at any given moment, because apparently he was not good enough, despite him wanting nothing but to protect her from harming herself and that she was being selfish by pushing him away and nonsensical and-

"Kamui?"

"Y-yes?"

"What is it then?"

"What is it what?"

"The movie," Ike said, furrowing his brown and pointing at the posters a few steps ahead of them. "What do you want to watch?"

Kamui furrowed his eye brow as he took a look at the movie posters in front of him. There were four in total, with one of them showing a young octopus girl looking over her shoulder as she took the subway; another one that looked more artsy, with a young girl holding up a rose that covered her mouth as she was framed by a painting frame; the third one looking more like a thriller, with the composition being a handsome man giving a determined look to the viewer and a young, white haired girl behind him looking into the distance; and the fourth and last one being more colorful and lighthearted, showing a spunky boy carrying a big key and being accompanied by a duck and a dog like creature.

He had no idea what he wanted to watch and didn't want to make an effort to decide. His indecision led to an awkward silence between them, which was not alleviated by the busy sounds of the cinema's street, until Ike's patience ran out and he let out a disappointed sigh.

"Look, Kamui, I know that you have a lot going on your mind right now and I don't blame you," he said. "If you want to, we can come here another day. This doesn't have to be an obligation."

"What?! No!" Kamui exclaimed and, without thinking, gently placed a hand on his arm. "Ike, I know that I'm not paying attention to you and that I'm not being very good company, but I do want to watch a movie with you!"

"You're not being a bad company, but you are usually so talkative, so you acting quiet feels weird."

"He he, is that so?" he chuckled. "I guess I can talk too much sometimes."

"It's not a bad thing, I like that about you," Ike said. "I just want you to know that you can count on me for anything, okay?"

"Thanks, Ike, really..."

Kamui then realized that he still had his hand on his arm and quickly pulled it away before the gesture became awkward. He wanted to tell Ike about all of his worries, but at that point, he didn't want to risk souring the mood when everything was falling back to place. Mustering up the best smile he could, he turned back to the posters and pointed at the one with the determined man and mindful woman.

"We could watch this one! I've heard good things about it!"

"It's the second movie from a trilogy, isn't it?"

"Yeah, I've watched the first one and it was pretty good! I've heard that some characters are returning from the first movie as well, so I want to see how they fit in!"

"Alright, seems good to me."

They entered the cinema so they could buy their tickets. Kamui would not let his worries ruin that for him, no matter how much the annoying voice at the back of his head nagged him to check up on Corrin.

\---------

Peach hummed along with the elevator music in satisfaction as she held a brown paper bag close to her chest, blue eyes watching the panel show its slow ascension to the second last floor, where her own bedroom was. It was her turn to watch Corrin over for the night and she decided to invite the princess and a couple of other friends over at her place. What Corrin needed was to have fun and forget about her problems for a moment, so that meant sleepover with movies, junk food and lots of booze. Which was exactly what she carried in that heavy paper bag.

The elevator stopped at the second floor and opened its doors, revealing Bayonetta waiting at the other side. She got inside without bothering to know if the elevator was going up or down and pressed the ground floor button, giving Peach only a look and a nod of acknowledgement. As the doors slowly slid close, the princess could feel Bayonetta's judgmental stare as he noticed the rather flashy tip from the bottle exposed from the bag.

"Well, I must say that I did not take you as the type who needed to drink alone," the witch teased as Peach clutched the bag.

"I'm having a few friends over my room tonight, that is why I'm bringing a bottle," she explained.

She preferred to not mention that there was already a bottle of liquor in her room and that what she had in hands was back up.

"I know that you have one of the biggest rooms available, but will it fit everyone?"

"It's not a party, Bayonetta," Peach said, adjusting the bag. "I only invited Corrin, Daisy and Isabelle for a sleepover."

"I see."

The elevator arrived at the seventh floor and Peach couldn't be more grateful. She said a quick good night to the with and stepped away from the elevator, her delicate feet itching to sprint and get her away from her before she teased her any further. She was forced to a stop as Bayonetta extended her arm and blocked the doors from closing.

"Is she alright?" Bayonetta asked.

"Who?" Peach asked, turning around.

"Corrin."

"Uh, well..."

"I ask you because I watched her fight with Robin," she explained. "Something was not right with her. Since you are close to her, I thought that you might know what happened."

"Corrin is feeling a bit... under the weather," the princess said, bitting her tongue. "I'm sorry, but I can't say anything else on the matter."

"Hmm..."

"I came up with the idea of the sleepover in hopes of cheering her up."

"It doesn't take much to cheer her up, I'm sure that it will work."

Peach had no idea if what she said was genuine or just subtle shade thrown at her friend, but the less she insisted on figuring it out, the better. Bayonetta pulled her arm away and let the doors slide close, bringing Peach a sigh of relief once she realized that she was alone. While by no means she was in bad terms with Bayonetta, she would rather talk to other people, as the woman had a strange effect on her that caused her immense discomfort.

She wouldn't dwell in such thoughts, though. She had her friends to attend to. She crossed the spacious corridor, humming the elevator's calming song, until she reached the last room of the corridor, the one with the big, maroon door with the number 713 written in delicate golden letters, all customized according to her.

Peach reached for the pocket of her skirt and got her card key. In a swift motion, she swiped the card on the digital lock and opened the door.

"Sorry I'm late, girls," she announced, bringing the attention from the three women seated on the fluffy pink cushions to her. "I brought us more wine!"

Daisy was the first one to get up, adjusting her cotton orange shirt as she crossed the luxurious room, almost skipping, towards her friend. Corrin observed the two women take the bottle to the small mini-bar at the corner of the room and then turned her attention back to Isabelle, who resumed her game of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. Despite her cute and small appearance, Isabelle could be quite fierce when it came to gaming, which only showed on the way her paws firmly gripped the controller and her pitch black eyes had that competitive gleam to them.

"You're really good at this," Corrin commented as she sat closer. "Remind me to never play this game against you."

"Oh, thank you," Isabelle said, not taking her gaze off from the screen. "I'm pretty rusty, though. It's hard to play anything when the only Switch available is in the gaming room and how little time I have."

"Wait, this is you being rusty?!"

"He he."

Corrin returned to her cushion as she saw both Peach and Daisy returning to their seats, plate full of pastries and wine glasses in hands. They laid them on the small, round glass table in the center of the semi circle of cushions and took their seats.

"Peach, I gotta say, your room is really impressive," Daisy said as she poured wine on everyone's glasses. "How hard was to get it?"

"Not much, since this room was a gift from Crazy Hand."

"What?!"

Corrin took another look around the room, impressed that all of that was a gift from one of their hosts. The suites at the seventh floor were barely occupied by regular Smashers, as they were few and too expensive to rent, while regular rooms were occupied for free. Those who did manage to save up enough money usually preferred to spend it with something else or search for a regular apartment, so the seventh floor suites were occupied by rich guests and a couple of Smashers, them being Peach and King DeDeDe.

She could see why it was so expensive, with it being three times as big as her regular hotel room, having a separate area for a bedroom, two velvet couches that could turn into beds, a big TV screen with its own Switch plugged in (also a gift from Crazy Hand, according to the princess) and even her own small kitchen. It was no different than an apartment and the fact that it was handled to Peach for free brought some small feeling of envy on everyone there.

"Must be nice to be the boss's favorite," Daisy mumbled.

"It's a fair exchange for how many times I get tossed in the air by Crazy Hand," Peach said, nonchalantly.

"Favoritism is an overstatement, not even Master Hand shows this much favoritism towards the original twelve fighters," Isabelle said as she paused the game and turned her attention to the other women. "You're very lucky, Peach."

"How about we stop talking about my room or else, I will force everyone to leave?"

Once Daisy finished serving the wine, they each got their glasses and made a toast. It had no meaning behind it, as the gesture felt more like an obligation due to the type of beverage they were consuming, but none of them paid any mind to it. As they took their first sip, it felt like the night had really started at that moment. If Corrin were to be honest with herself, she was feeling a bit uncomfortable with the whole situation at first. She was not shy by any means, quite on the contrary, had she been in any other time of her life, she would be enjoying that meeting and talking to the other women a lot more, but due to the recent events and her own fear that something awful could happen at any moment, Corrin was unusually quiet.

She took a sip of her wine. It was a fine wine, not too sweet, but also not to strong in taste, Peach knew how to choose. Corrin quietly listened to them chat, only contributing every once in a while to the conversation.

She took another sip.

There was a nice smell of incense that calmed her down and it didn't take long for Peach to put on some music. The conversation was picking up pace.

Corrin took another sip.

\---------

It was about midnight when Kamui and Ike's movie session ended. The night life on the streets had already picked up pace, the loud conversations and shouts from already tipsy party-goers in extensive lines muffling the already muffled loud music blasting from inside the clubs. If Kamui were to be honest, he would enjoy the lively scene a lot more if it weren't for the fact that, if he didn't stay on his lane and watched over his things, he probably would get robbed by some drunk madman. Sure, he could defend himself, but he wouldn't like to get in a fight at that moment, especially if they had a knife. Ike also kept paying close attention to their surroundings and had to watch himself to not wrap his arm around Kamui's waist and bring him closer in an attempt to keep him safe.

As soon as the crowd started to diminish and the noise to quiet down for a bit, Kamui turned to Ike with a sparkle in his eyes, grinning from ear to ear.

"What a great movie!" he beamed. "I know that people were saying good things about it, but I wasn't expecting much. I'm so glad that I was wrong!"

"It was, I especially liked the bond between the grandpa and his adopted kid," Ike said, though his voice showed less emotion. "The ending was pretty good, but I think that it let some loose ends. Like, they showed that everyone was stuck on the moon, but they never explained why and for what reason."

"Oh, but that's the whole thing about this series," Kamui explained. "They have various endings that show different things so you can get the whole picture, but they are screening a different one on each cinema."

"Are there now?" he mused and then gave a chuckle. "Well, I suppose that we will have to watch them all, right?"

"Of course we will!" the prince played along. "We don't want to leave the film's story on a loose end, do we?"

"No, we don't!"

They slowed down their pace and for a brief moment both men were quiet, taking in the cold breeze of the autumn night. Ike had no idea if he said or did something that would make Kamui grow quiet like that, especially with how he wouldn't stop gushing about the movie a couple of seconds ago.

"So, do you want to go watch the movie at the cinema at Gamyga mall?" Ike asked, scratching the back of his neck. "We'll probably get a different ending there, if they are screening it."

"Oh, sure, I would love to."

Their pace gradually grew slower, until both of them stopped walking. The streets were now quiet, with not a single soul in sight except for the two of them. Without saying anything, Kamui closed in and caught Ike's lips with his. It was a quick and uncertain kiss, uncharacteristically timid for someone as extroverted as Kamui, but it soon evolved into a full kiss as Ike brought him closer and deepened the kiss. Without thinking twice, the prince enveloped his arms around his neck and tilted his head, allowing Ike to slightly bend him backwards.

They broke the kiss for a brief moment to catch their breath, but still remained in that position, with Ike slightly towering over Kamui, who was almost at his tiptoes.

"So are you free this weekend?" Ike asked, breathless.

"Yes… yes, I am..."

They resumed their kissing, not a single care in the world.

\---------

_Corrin gazed into the landscape of the of the big city from her balcony, buildings shining brightly as they formed an almost oppressive ocean of light. So bright, in fact, that Corrin could barely make out the floor beneath those skyscrapers. It was truly breathtaking, but also intimidating, it was almost hypnotizing. Her attention was then brought to a large maroon cat that sat that the edge of the balcony, licking its paws without noticing the danger it was in. If Corrin didn't get that cat out of there, it would fall off the balcony!_

_"Psst, here kitty," she called, slowly making her way to the cat with amber eyes. "Come on, I'll keep you safe."_

_The cat kept going back and forth, almost as if taunting her. Corrin paid no mind and still approached the feline, ready to save it from the balcony. Before she could grab it, however, it jumped off. Without thinking about what she was doing, Corrin after the cat, desperate to save it from its demise. She tried to sprout her dragon wings, tried to fly towards the now missing cat and land them to safety, but she realized that she had her wings clipped._

_With no means of recovering, Corrin could only shield her eyes as she approached the ocean of light. Her back hit the concrete with a loud thud and the light around vanished as soon as she opened her eyes. As she laid on the ground, unable to move or scream for help, the cat appeared before her, still with that taunting expression, and decided to sit on her stomach, the high pressure causing her to wince in pain. Just how much did that cat weight? She didn't have much time to ponder, as a hooded figure approached her from the pitch black void, its movements choppy and slow._

_"Oh, there you are! I've been searching all over for you."_

_The figure towered over her, its presence getting bigger and bigger the closer she that got to her. There was nothing that Corrin could do to make it go away. The cat did not move, the pressure on her stomach becoming more unbearable as the moments passed. She tried to struggle, to get away from that strange figure that caused her anguish, but her body refused to obey._

_"Don't struggle, you will only hurt yourself like this," the figure, who now revealed to have a white mask beneath the robe's hood, said. "There is no need to fight back, my dear. You are mine now and I will never let you go."_

_The pressure was becoming unbearable, to the point where Corrin simply accepted her words and let go of any attempts of struggling. She didn't flinch as the figure extended her skinny, pale hand to her face, her long and sharp nails caressing her cheek, only to then slowly make their way to her neck._

_"Good girl."_

The combination of a nasty headache and a stomach full of alcohol made sleep an impossible task for Corrin to carry on. With a groan, she groggily sat up from the pink cushion where she passed out, spitting out chunks of silver hair that got stuck in her dry mouth. There were two empty wine bottles lying around, as well as another bottle of some unidentified liquor that made Corrin's stomach turn even more as the sickeningly sweet stench exhaled from the bottle. She remembered that she and her friends were drinking that liquor once the wine bottles were emptied, but now she couldn't stomach the idea of tasting that drink anymore. The room was filled with the noises of her sleeping friends, who slept on places that were definitely not a bed.

Well, Daisy almost did, though she didn't change the couch where she rested into a bed. Poor Isabelle was passed out on the round glass table, a reminder of the blurry memory Corrin had of the shi-tzu dancing on top of it that night. The Nohrian princess rubbed her swollen red eyes and looked at her side, where Peach slept soundly at another cushion. Little by little, she forced herself to stand up, having to stop once a wave of nausea hit her.

"Ugh, I need to throw up," she thought.

She got her phone that was left forgotten at one of the couches and saw that it was still five in the morning. Despite sleeping for so little time, she had no intentions of going back to sleep, not when she was feeling so nauseated and after having that strange and eerie dream. Before she could make her way to Peach's bathroom in hopes to avoid causing an accident on her friend's carpet, she heard her mumble her name from behind her. As Corrin turned around, she saw Peach sitting up and looking at her with half open, sleepy eyes.

"Oh, you're up," she said in a cracked voice, like someone who had barely any good sleep. "How are you feeling?"

"Not so good," Corrin admitted. "I need to go to the bathroom."

"You need to throw up?"

"Yeah."

"Hang on, let me..." she groggily got to her feet and walked towards the mini kitchen, where she stored her medicine in a small dispenser. "Corrin, come here. I have something that will make you feel better."

Curious, Corrin did as she was told and followed Peach to the mini-kitchen. There, she was offered a green pill and a glass of water, who she gratefully took it, as her mouth was very dry and she was feeling very thirsty. She gulped the medicine down in a second, not even stopping to breathe as she finished drinking the glass of water.

"Ahhh..." she sighed, putting down the glass on the marble counter, satisfied. "Thank you, Peach!"

"You're welcome, don't worry if you don't feel anything now, it will make an effect in a few minutes," Peach said and then rested her elbows on the counter. "So I take it that you didn't sleep all that well?"

"No, and to make things worse, I had a really strange dream," Corrin shook her head and also rested her elbows on the counter. "But still… it was really fun."

"It was, wasn't it?"

"I mean, until the part where I remember, yes," she said, turning to Peach. "I don't need to say sorry to any of you, do I? Because if I did something..."

"He he he, you don't need to, you did nothing bad," Peach giggled. "You're funny when you're drunk, Corrin."

"Am I now?"

"We were playing Jackbox and none of the things you wrote in that game where we need to finish sentences made any sense," she recalled, putting a finger on her chin. "Somehow you still ended up winning because Daisy was so smashed, that she laughed at everything you said and gave you all the points."

As if on cue, they heard a loud snore coming from the Sarasaland princess, still passed out on the couch. Both women giggled as the memories came back to them.

"What about you, Peach? Are you alright?"

"Me? Oh, I stopped after my second glass, I'm perfectly fine."

"Wait, seriously?"

"I mean, I still needed to keep an eye on you, didn't I?" she said, supporting her chin on her hand. "Someone needed to stay sober here, in case anything were to happen."

"I guess you're right," Corrin mumbled.

"But I was not that afraid of you getting out of my sight."

"Why so?"

"Because when you are drunk, you are part time funny and part time lovey-dovey," Peach explained, making Corrin blush from ear to ear. "You wouldn't stop hugging me."

"I, uh..."

"I know that you were under the effect of alcohol, but I thought that you saying how much you loved me was really cute," she continued. "Anyway, you then fell asleep in my arms and I placed you on the cushion, because I couldn't move you to the bed."

Corrin hid her face on her hands, still too embarrassed to look at Peach. She had vague memories of hugging and giving kisses on her cheek, but wanted to believe that they were all part of a dream she had before the bad one. She could only hope that she didn't annoy her too much.

"Hey, are you alright?"

"Aside from feeling too embarrassed?"

"Oh, you stop that, I told you that I thought it was cute," Peach rolled her eyes and gently took her friend's hands into hers. "I just wanted for you to smile and have some fun, so don't beat yourself up over this."

"Heh, thank you for worrying, Peach."

"Anytime, Corrin."

Peach squeezed Corrin's hand, who returned the gesture by intertwining their fingers. The nausea was slowly diminishing and even her headache was starting to go away. Peace didn't last long, however, as they heard a loud thud coming from the semi circle of cushions and a nauseated groan.

"Maybe we should go help Isabelle," Corrin suggested.

"Agree."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let's all pretend that the gimmick of a movie that screens different endings in different cinemas is something that would totally work. Sounds good? Also, all of the movies in this chapter mentioned were video game titles. Can you guess which titles I referenced?
> 
> And yeah, I know how that ending with Corrin and Peach holding hands sounds like, don't touch me.


	11. The mistress and her servant

There was something about the damp air of Dracula's castle that made Laura feel nostalgic and yearn for the days gone by that she never had. As she crossed the dimly lit corridors of the large castle, making her way to the last floor. She gingerly grazed her thin fingers over the stone cold walls, sharp nails every once in a while scratching the surface. That copy of the original castle felt so real, Laura sometimes had to remember that she was still in a different world and that she was a copy of the woman that once faced the Belmont clan in the name of her mistress.

Despite knowing that both she and her mistress were mere copies, Laura still remained faithful and would carry out the orders that she was given. She climbed up the spiral tower stairs and reached the outside bridge that lead to another wing of the castle. The night was clear, without a single cloud in the sky, permitting her a beautiful view of the stars and the crescent moon. A clear contrast from the tainted night skies of that dreaded city where she had to spend some of the nights in, in order to keep a close eye on her prey. She approached the other side of the bridge in swift steps, all while going through her reports in her mind and making sure that she wouldn't miss a detail.

Laura opened the doors that lead to Carmilla's, her adored mistress, ruined chambers and she was greeted by an enormous, grinning white mask that floated in the center of the room. The shadows cast on her by the small number of lit candles making her grin all the more terrifying to any stranger who were to witness the scene. The servant gave her a respectful curtsy.

"My mistress."

"Laura, you have been away for quite a while," Carmilla said, her voice strong and imposing. "I expect that this long absence can only mean good news."

"Indeed, there is! It appears that the girl has being growing less stable and more susceptible to the visions, it won't be long until she completely surrenders to my influence. However..."

"However?"

"It has been hard to get any closer to her, since I have that infuriating Richter Belmont chasing me," Laura said. "Thankfully, the city is quite big and it is easy to hide from him, but I fear that he might be working with other fighters to catch me."

"Hmm..."

"I suspect that they also know of your existence in this world, my mistress."

"That is indeed a problem," Carmilla said as she mused about the situation. "You have also mentioned that there is another Belmont running among the fighters, have you not?"

"Yes, though I have not seen Simon in person... yet."

"No doubt he also knows about us."

"What should I do, then?"

"Accelerate the process and bring the girl to me as fast as possible," Carmilla commanded. "Bring her by force, if necessary! I am growing impatient and you cannot stay hidden forever, Laura."

"Oh, I doubt that force will be necessary," her servant gave another curtsy. "I shall carry your orders without failure."

"I know that you will."

With those last words, Laura turned around and left Carmilla's chamber. She had work to do and she knew exactly where she could find Corrin.

\---------

_There was a brief pause in their game of Jackbox when Peach and Daisy announced that they would go prepare something for them to eat. Corrin and Isabelle could only giggle, in the high of their alcoholic stupor, as they watched Daisy clumsily get up from her cushion, needing Peach's guidance on their way to the kitchen. Once they were out of sight and hearing, Corrin laid back on the cushion and turned her head towards her proclaimed new friend._

_"Daisy is sooo drunk," she said in a slurred speech. "How much do you wanna bet that Peach will do everything?"_

_"It's not a fair bet when we both think the same thing," Isabelle laughed._

_"He he, you're right."_

_"Of course I am!"_

_"Ahhh, tonight is one of the best nights ever! Almost makes me forget that I'm cursed!"_

_"What? Cursed?" Isabelle asked, laughing even harder. "Corrin, I think you need to stop drinking."_

_"Oh, no! I'm serious about this," she said, sitting up and taking another sip from her glass. "I mean, I don't KNOW if I'm cursed, but I can't stop hearing voices and seeing things, y'know?"_

_"Oh my, that's terrible!"_

_Had Isabelle been any bit sober, she would suggest that Corrin should seek a doctor, but she instead decided to listen to her woes._

_"So I don't know what to do," Corrin said, once she finished her story. She then took another sip. "Should I call a priest? Are… are exorcishms real?"_

_"How about Luigi? He fights ghosts, right?"_

_"...Pfffff, I'm just imagining Luigi using his silly vacuum something to get rid of my visionsh," she giggled. "He he he HA HA HA! HE'S THE HERO I NEED!"_

_"Ha ha ha!"_

_"Who else fights ghosts?"_

_"Uhh… that girl with the camera that pops up in battles…" Isabelle said. "OH, Simon Belmont! He fights ghosts!"_

_"No, he fights vampires."_

_"I forgot."_

_"But, hm… He still deals with supernatural monsters..." Corrin pondered, finishing her glass. "Maybe..."_

\---------

It was around 9 AM when Corrin returned to her room so she could get ready for the day. As the memories from last night slowly returned to her, the idea she had of asking Simon Belmont for help felt sound. Luckily, she just so happened to have a fight against him scheduled for that day, so finding him wouldn't be a hassle. He was one of those newcomers who didn't adapt well to newer technology, so phoning him wouldn't do any good. Corrin felt really lucky!

Despite her lack of proper sleep and that weird dream still haunting her mind, she still felt a brief moment of happiness that seemed so rare to her lately. That happiness wouldn't last, since as soon as her hand reached the knob of her door, she heard the voice of the last person she wanted to see at that moment.

"Corrin, good morning!" Kamui said.

She turned her head and saw Kamui walking towards her, an expression of satisfaction that seemed to drain her own the closer he got to her. So much for having a good morning.

"Hi, Kamui."

"Are you alright?"

"Why do you ask?"

"Your face, your eyes look sunken," he said, worried. "Did you get any sleep? Did Peach keep you up all night?"

"Kind of," she said. "I spent the night in her room and we had a party with Daisy and Isabelle."

"Was it fun?"

"Yeah, it was alright," Corrin forced a smile. "And what about your date with Ike? Did you have fun?"

"We kissed after the movie was over!" he said, overly excited. "I had to give the first step, but he returned the kiss with such intensity and..."

"Aww, congratulations."

"It's like a dream come true! I'm still trying to believe that this is all happening!"

"I bet you are..."

"But don't worry, I won't let this distract me from keeping you safe," Kamui said. "Tonight, I'll watch over you, okay?"

"Kamui, you don't need to do that," Corrin frowned. "You don't need to stop everything that you're doing in your life to keep an eye on me. You're not my babysitter."

"But I want to! I don't want you to hurt yourself!"

"Yes, but Peach and the others can also help."

"Judging by your face, I don't think that she has been doing a good job. You look really tired."

"Excuse me?!"

"It's not like I'm doubting Peach, but she had one job and you-"

"Who are you to say that Peach isn't doing a good job?!" she said, irritation growing in her voice. "The night at Peach's was one of the most fun nights I've had recently and I knew that if anything were to happen, she would prevent it from happening! I am not tired and feel fine!"

"Corrin, I think I know you well enough to-"

"No, you DON'T!"

Her sudden outburst took Kamui aback and brought a heavy silence between them. For a brief moment, Corrin felt a tinge of guilt inside her chest for shouting at him like that, but that guilt went away as soon as it came, and all she did was turn the doorknob.

"Listen, Kamui, we'll talk later, okay?"

"A-alright..."

"I need to get ready for today's battle and get rid of the taste of alcohol in my mouth."

"Wait, what?!"

She quickly got inside and shut the door before Kamui could ask any further. He frantically knocked with his fists, calling for Corrin and demanding an explanation, but was forced to stop once he realized that his noise woke up one of the Inklings, who came out of her room with inkshot eyes and yelled in her incomprehensible language, probably telling him to quit it. He begrudgingly took one last look at the closed door and walked away.

\---------

It was becoming a widespread thought that when it came to fighting, Richter Belmont didn't exactly use his brain to get the job done. That was not to say that he wasn't a formidable opponent, very few Smashers would call him "non-threatening", but he was not known to come up with complex strategies or, as some of the fans called it, "combos" when he fought. Still, if cracking his whip and a simple throw of his ax were enough to take the lives of his opponents, then why should he try something different? He wouldn't try to fix what wasn't broken.

Richter threw his mighty ax in an arc motion and hit his ancestor, Simon Belmont, as he tried to recover from being thrown off stage of New Pork City. Due to his terrible recovery move, Simon had no chances of grabbing the ledge that was so close a second ago and let himself fall, marking that the end of their battle. It was not the most graceful or exciting way to end a fight, but Richter would take that victory, regardless of finesse. As the stage morphed into the victory announcement platform, Richter posed for his loyal audience, gave them his famous charming grin and peace sign, and waited until he and Simon were transported back to the outside of the stage, near the door that lead to the prep room.

Victory felt especially good when he proved that he could take his famous ancestor out in a battle, though he hoped that that wouldn't make things awkward between them. Simon did look at him with a grumpy expression on his hardened face, but that could also be his normal expression.

"Congratulations, Richter," Simon said, extending his hand to him. "I expected nothing less from you."

"Thanks, grandpa!"

"Don't call me that."

"Sorry."

They shook hands and were ready to call it a day, or at least, Richter was. Simon still had his fight against Corrin to go through. It was the first time he would fight against her, with all the previous fights being against the boy version, but he was not all that worried, despite him having some difficulties when he went against the dragon prince. After the display of her last fight against Robin, Simon assumed that the girl didn't have a lot of maturity when it came to dealing with her frustrations in battle. From what he heard, it was rare for smashers to end their battles early because they were losing, and the ones that did that, usually were not seen with good eyes by the public or even the other smashers.

He would think about that later, for the moment, he still had a more pressing issue to talk to Richter.

"Before you go, do you have any news on the hunt for Laura?" he asked.

"No, nothing."

"Hrm..."

"You know what worries me the most? I fear that the more time Bayonetta and I take to catch her, the more likely she is to cause harm to someone."

"Indeed, that is most concerning," Simon said. "Despite not being called for this mission, you can count on me to search for her as well."

"I still don't understand why Bayonetta was called, instead of you," Richter scratched his head. "She doesn't even seem to care!"

"So she is an unresponsive partner, uh?"

"Not unresponsive, just… uninterested. As if the safety innocent people are of no concern to her and that she's doing this because she was told to, not because it's the right thing to do."

"What did you expect from a witch, though? Someone who is so willing to make a pact with demons in exchange for power certainly can't be a good person."

"Even so, I don't think it's true, but… never mind," Richter shook his head. "Going back to Laura, what do you think it's the best course of action?"

"With so little clue on where we can find her?" Simon asked, only to then let out a hum. "Well, we could also be patient and wait for her to show up."

"You can't be serious about expecting her to turn in!"

"No, Richter, that is not what I mean. What I mean is that, if Laura has ill intentions and is planning on doing something, we are certainly going to know," he explained.

"I don't know, the city is pretty big," Richter said, but was quick to shift that brief moment of pessimism into an optimistic view on the situation. "But that's already something! I'll be on a lookout for anything weird happening."

"And with her captured, we can finally reach Carmilla," Simon nodded.

"Ugh, I just wish I could tell about this to the other Smashers. There would be better mobilization and we would find her more easily."

"Why can't you tell the other Smashers?" he asked.

"I made a promise."

"Simon?"

The Belmonts turned around and found Corrin, her demeanor rather awkward, standing a few feet away from them. They were so absorbed in their conversation that they didn't notice the princess approaching them.

"I hope I'm not disturbing the conversation," she said. "Can I talk to you after our battle is over?"

"Uh, sure," Simon said, confused. "We still got fifteen minutes until it starts, so let me finish here with Richter and we can talk."

"Alright, I'll be waiting at the prep room," she then gave Richter a nod. "It's good to see you again, Richter."

"G-good to see ya."

They watched her go inside the room, both now curious about what could be so urgent that made her approach Simon like that.

"That was unexpected," Richter said.

"Yes, it was."

"I'll leave you be, then. I still need to find Bayonetta anyway, so I better get going before I'm late."

"Wait, Richter! Who did you make that promise of not telling anyone that you're after Laura and Carmilla?"

"I… don't think I can tell."

"Why not?"

"It's complicated."

"It can't be that complicated."

"It isn't, but-"

"Then who is it?"

"If I say it, I'm afraid that they'll know and beat me into a pulp!"

"Richter, you've faced trials worse than death itself and you're afraid of one person?" Simon asked, disbelief apparent in his features.

"That's why I said it's complicated," Richter said.

"...Are you being threatened?"

"No, but if Crazy were ever to find-"

"Ah, I see."

"DAMMIT!" Richter screamed.

So that was why he was so worried to keep a secret, he was working under Crazy Hand. The reason for all that secrecy was still unknown to him, as he believed that if they mobilized everyone to search for a dangerous threat was the most reasonable option, but he also believed that, if the situation had reached that state, it was probably not because Richter or that cursed witch didn't try reasoning with their higher up.

Richter wanted to punch something! How could he be so careless?! The fact that Simon's expression didn't change with that revelation made him feel even worse. Stupid, stupid! To make matters worse, Corrin heard the scream from inside the room and decided to check out what was happening.

"Richter, are you okay?" she asked, worried.

"Everything's fine, Corrin," Simon said with a shake of his hand. "Richter stumbled his toe."

"Ouch..." she winced.

"I'll leave you two alone," Richter grumbled, still irritated at the slip of tongue. "Good luck to you two."

"Actually, I was thinking… could you also hear me out?" Corrin asked, to their surprise. "I think you might also have an answer, now that I think about it."

Curious about what she had to talk about, Richter agreed to her request. Bayonetta could wait a few minutes, he could deal with her nagging. The three Smashers entered the prep room and checked the clock on the wall in order to see how much time they had before the fight started. They had about ten minutes, which was enough for Corrin.

"So, what did you want to talk about?" Simon asked.

"This may sound a bit like crazy talk, but do you know if it's possible to know if you're cursed?"

"That certainly isn't something I expected to hear," Richter said, scratching his head. "Well, there are many kinds of curses, some more aggressive than others. The more aggressive ones are easier to spot, but there are also some subtle ones."

"Why do you ask, Corrin?"

She gave them a brief explanation of what was happening to hear on the past few days, starting from the visit she did to the shady fortune-teller. It was almost funny in a certain way, how natural it felt to tell the events to those two almost strangers to her, when until a couple days ago, she had to make an effort to speak about it to her closest friends. Could it be because she was growing used to her situation? Or was it something else? Corrin didn't know and wouldn't think too hard about it.

"Corrin, about your fight with Robin," Simon said, as soon as she finished her story. "Was it because of one of those visions?"

"Yes, I saw my older brother calling to me and I went after him," she said. "I didn't want to, but every time I try to resist, they find a way to pull me in."

"Sounds like a curse alright," Richter said.

"Kamui said that it was crazy talk when I suggested that."

"Who?"

"My male counterpart. He probably thinks that I'm going crazy by this point."

"You're not going crazy," Simon said. "The woman you visited was most likely the one responsible for your visions and I think that the tea she gave you was the thing that triggered this."

"Is there anything that I can do about this?"

"Bathing in thick salt might help you fend off any nasty presence trying to get close to you," Richter suggested.

"Or an exorcism to cleanse your spirit," Simon said, earning a worried expression from the girl. "All we would need is some holy water and-"

"I don't want that, it sounds painful," Corrin interrupted. "Don't you guys throw that stuff at your opponents? Your water will burn me!"

"It doesn't work like that outside of the battlefield," the younger Belmont said. "The holy water will only repel whatever evil thing trying to take over your body."

"Then I don't need an exorcism. Nothing is trying to possess me!"

"But..."

"You are right, Corrin," Simon said, interrupting Richter. "I guess that we got carried away."

"That's okay, I know you only wanted to help."

Richter gave him a questioning look, one that wondered why he was going to side with Corrin's refusal when they probably had the right answer. He trusted that his ancestor was wiser, but he couldn't shake off the feeling that if they didn't do something soon about Corrin, then it would be too late for her.

"The fight is about to start in three minutes," Simon said, turning their attention to the clock. "Richter, we'll finish our discussion from before later."

"Okay, see ya," he said and then turned to Corrin. "Take care, alright? If you need anything, call me."

"Thanks, I will."

Once Richter let the room, Simon and Corrin decided that it was also time for them to leave as well. They could already hear the cheers from the audience above them, which gave them a slight boost in morale.

"Corrin, I suggest that you do as Richter said and bathe yourself in thick salt," Simon said, once they reached the stage transportation room. "I know that the idea may sound silly, but if what you're going through is being caused by a malicious demon, the salt has properties that will fend them off."

"Alright, I will try," Corrin nodded. "Thank you, Simon."

"One more question before we start our battle."

"Yes?"

"That fortune-teller who cursed you," he said. "Can you remember how she looked like?"

"She was covering her face with a veil, but she clearly looked like a human, instead of a Magikoopa," Corrin recalled. "I could see her eyes, though. They were a strong red."

"What else?"

"She had really pale and delicate hands… I also think that I saw a strand of brown hair popping from the side, but I could be wrong. I didn't even notice it until I paid her."

"Alright, I see now."

"What? Do you know her?"

"Pay me no mind, Corrin. I asked out of curiosity."

He would tell Richter and Bayonetta to pay close attention to Corrin later. If his intuition was correct, then Corrin was in more danger than she realized, not only for her life, but her soul as well.

\---------

Ike couldn't understand why Kamui was feeling so down. After what happened last night, he expected to find him in good spirits, but as soon as he saw the prince walking in the gym's training room they had been renting the past few days, it almost felt like he made the air around them heavier with negativity.

He wanted to ask what was wrong, but Kamui didn't give him an opening to question. He simply wished to start their training and Ike obliged, hoping that he would be able to lower his defenses eventually. As they started to exchange blows, Ike noticed how sluggish Kamui's movements were, how distracted he was by not taking advantage of obvious openings that he left, how he didn't seem to know if he wanted to fight more aggressively or in a more defensive manner. It didn't take long for Ike to gain an advantage and overwhelm Kamui, one swing of his sword managing to make the prince drop his sword, leaving him entirely exposed.

Kamui yelped as Ike tackled him to the ground, setting his sword aside as he pinned him down with one arm pressing his chest and his free hand holding his wrist. He struggled to get up, to no avail. Ike's body was just that heavy.

"Ike, let me go!"

"Not until you tell me what going on with you," he said, his demeanor half serious, half amused. "You're in no condition of training."

"Of course I am!"

"If you were, we would not be in this situation."

"Oh, come on!"

"Just tell me what's going on and I'll get off."

"Fine…" he sighed. "I was thinking about Corrin."

Kamui was caught by surprise by how Ike's expression seemed to sour as he heard those words. "Corrin, uh," Ike mumbled, which made Kamui feel even more guilty than before. As promised, he got off from Kamui and sat by his side on the light blue mattress. All the worry and anger that Kamui was feeling towards Corrin turned into guilt, as he realized that he once again was setting Ike aside when they were supposed to be spending time together.

"Ike, I'm sorry..."

"Look, Kamui, I already told you before," Ike said, bitterly. "If you are so worried about Corrin, you don't need to waste your time with me. Go take care of her."

"Being with you is not a waste of time!" Kamui said, sitting closer to him. "I'm not doing this out of obligation, it's just that..."

"What?"

Kamui could feel his chest tighten. Making Ike upset was the last thing that he wanted to happen. He was already worried sick about Corrin, he didn't want to worry about that as well.

"I wouldn't be this worried if she would just stop pushing me away."

"Is she now?"

"Yes! She's been growing more distant each day and..." he hung his head on his hands.

"Kamui?"

"I don't know what else to do! I can't concentrate on anything else, but I _really_ want to enjoy your company more! I've wanted to get to know you for so long and now I can't fully enjoy it because Corrin doesn't want to see me and she might die at any moment and-"

"Hey, hey, come here," Ike said, bringing the desperate prince closer to him. "I don't know what is going on with Corrin for her to act cold towards you, but I'll try talking to her about this, okay?"

"But..."

"Besides, I was looking forward to practicing with her anyway, since we're going to form a trio next tournament. This is a good opportunity to practice our teamwork and ask her what is going on between you."

"Well, I suppose you're right."

"Will this put your mind at ease?"

Kamui couldn't help but smile and rested his head on Ike's shoulder. "I don't deserve you, Ike," he said. "Yes, it will."

"Good."

Ike leaned in and place a small kiss on his lips. They could afford to postpone their training for some good ten minutes or more.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had to do extensive Castlevania lore research to write this fic. I hope you appreciate it, because I'm tired.


	12. Falling into the trap

The battle between Corrin and Simon was reaching its peak as it reached its last minute. Both had taken out two out of their three stock lives and seemed hesitant to approach each other. Simon kept cracking that sacred whip of his and proving that Corrin was never far enough away from him, while she kept trying to hit him with her dragon fang projectiles. She wished the balls of water she created were a little faster, since Simon easily shielded himself from them most of the times, but every once in a while he was careless and got hit. She would normally use that moment of stunning to lunge forward and slash him with the Yato, only to them back down and their routine go back to what it was before.

No wonder they were risking on running out of time. Corrin had to come up with a plan fast or they would go into Sudden Death. She definitely didn't want that to happen, Simon would get the first hit and win.

Suddenly, the tip of the iceberg where they were fighting on cracked, and the stage started to slide down the Icicle Mountain. Corrin was forced to brace herself so she wouldn't slide away, which proved to be a difficult task when fighting barefoot on an icy slippery floor. She raised her shield as Simon took the opportunity to throw some holy water at her, causing a pillar of flames to rise up from where the bottle broke once it came into contact with it. She winced at the flames that threatened to melt away her shield, the heat becoming almost unbearable, even when protected. Corrin remained firm, though, as she knew that Simon would not dare to approach her while the iceberg kept sliding down, since he also feared that he would slip away.

After seconds that seemed like minutes, the tip of the iceberg landed on the cold ocean and gave them the stability that they needed. Corrin had thirty seconds to end that fight and she knew she couldn't rely on making him fly off the stage. Simon was too heavy of a fighter, so he would probably survive a hard blow to his body even at the high percentage he was displaying. No, Corrin needed something to finish him now, something like…

"Uh?"

As she took a glance into the water, a big orange blur came into her view. That should work. Corrin dashed towards Simon, who mistakenly raised his shield as he thought that she would lunge at him with her Yato. She grabbed him by the collar and hit his head with the hilt of the Yato twice, before giving him a strong push that send him flying a few feet away from her, outside of the icy stage. As the Belmont tried to recover, Corrin jumped towards him and slashed his chest. With a grunt of pain, he lost his balance and fell on the freezing water.

Ten seconds until time ran out. Simon had to swim back and he could still save the battle by stalling into a Sudden Death.

His hopes were crushed as a gigantic orange fish came from below him and swallowed him whole. There was a mixture of cheers and booing while the announcer's voice announced the end of the match and Corrin was declared the victor.

\---------

Victory tasted bittersweet that time for Corrin, almost as if it didn't count. She thought that winning might lift her spirits, but it only made her doubt herself as a fighter. Had it not been for the stage hazard, she probably wouldn't have won. Had she been fighting on a neutral stage, she and Simon would definitely have gone into Sudden Death.

Kamui would have done a better job than her, she just knew that.

"Ugh, get these thoughts out of your head," she thought.

She won and that was supposed to be enough for her. After congratulating Simon for a battle well fought, she returned to the prep room to retrieve her sport bag from the lockers. As much as she wanted to take a shower before leaving, Peach was already waiting for her outside of the stadium and she didn't want to leave her waiting. Maybe they could go out for lunch, Corrin wanted to ask if Peach was free after accompanying her back to the hotel.

What she did not expect once she left the prep room was to meet Laura, waiting for her with a smile on her face. She did not bore the red dress like the other times they met, but instead sported the uniform of the staff who worked at the stadium.

"Laura?" she asked, taken by surprise. "I did not expect to find you here!"

"He he, surprise," Laura said, sweetly.

"I did not know that you worked here."

"I've got the job the other day, I certainly did not work here when we first met."

"Ah, I see."

"When I saw that today you had a fight scheduled to happen on one of this stadium's stages, I could hardly contain my excitement! It felt too good to be true!"

"He he, well, I'm glad that you enjoy watching my battles."

"I am a huge fan!"

Laura was such a sweet woman, her smile was very contagious. She wished she could get to know her better.

Peach was still waiting, though.

"I'm sorry, Laura," Corrin apologized. "I would love to stay and chat, but Princess Peach is waiting for me outside the stadium and I don't want to leave her waiting."

"Oh, that's too bad…" she pouted. "I was just about to ask you out for lunch now."

"But don't you have work?"

"My shift is just about to end."

"I see..." she said, musing over the invitation. "I don't know, Laura."

"Come on, please?" she insisted. "Do you have any plans with the princess? Or are you just going to walk back to the hotel?"

"Well, no, we don't have any plans, but..."

"Please, Corrin?"

Her voice was so captivating. And her eyes, so vibrant! Corrin could feel her resolve melt away the more she looked into them.

"Well, I don't think that Peach would mind that I go out for lunch with you," Corrin said, smiling back.

"Thank you!"

"But I still need to tell her that she doesn't need to wait for me."

Corrin didn't know if it was her impression, but she could swear that she saw Laura's face sour. She still kept on smiling, so maybe it was just her imagination after all. They walked outside of the stadium, to the back entrance where Peach awaited her. Compared to the chaos that the actual entrance was from the excited audience, the back exit sounded almost too quiet. As soon as she saw her friend getting out, Peach hurried to her side, only to stop on her tracks as she realized who was accompanying her.

That woman again? What was going on?

"Hey, Peach!" Corrin greeted, gesturing her hand at the woman by her side. "You remember Laura, right?"

"Yes, I do," she said, giving her a small nod. "Hello, Laura. What brings you here?"

"Well, I was thinking that since I work here and that Corrin had a match scheduled in this stadium, I should pay her a visit and invite her over for lunch," she explained.

"I know that you said you were going to accompany me back to the hotel, but would you mind if I went to have lunch with Laura instead?" Corrin asked. "I didn't want to go and leave you hanging."

"Um… I mean, you can do whatever you want, Corrin, but..." she hesitated. "Are you sure you will be okay?"

"What do you mean?"

"Your… um..."

Peach didn't know how to explain that she feared that something terrible might happen to Corrin while she was away. She did not trust Laura to protect her. She did not trust Laura at all and she had no idea why.

"I just don't think it's a good idea for you to be alone," was all she could say.

"I'm sorry, am I not enough company?" Laura asked.

"That's not what I meant! I-"

"Peach, I will be fine," Corrin said, getting closer to Laura. "I'll be back before you even know."

"D-don't… don't talk like I'm your mother!" she huffed. "Fine, but at least call me when you're back, okay?"

"I will! See you later, Peach!"

\---------

Laura's choice of restaurant was a small establishment called The Rambling Mushroom, surprisingly far away from the stadium where they met each other. The walk was worth it, though, as the restaurant was a quaint little thing with an open area secluded from all the chaos of the streets with its gardened walls, small, round glass tables and soothing ambient music. There weren't a lot of people eating, probably due to how secluded it was, but low movement was never a factor for Corrin to determine whether a restaurant was good or not. She could only hope that the price was accessible as well.

Once they found a table for two at the open area, near the wall, and made their orders, there was a brief moment of silence between them, until Laura rested her elbows on the glass and slightly leaned forward.

"Corrin, I don't think I can thank you enough for accepting my invitation."

"It's alright, Laura. I should be the one thanking you for the invitation, I feel like this is what I needed to lighten my head."

"Why? Is everything alright with you?" she asked, tilting her head to the side.

"Oh, it's… I'd rather not discuss this."

"Well, I won't press any further, but if you feel like it, you can talk to me."

Laura decided to change topics by asking her when her next fight was scheduled. One topic led to another, and before Corrin knew, time was flying by fast. Laura was such good company, she barely registered when her order, a simple tangy coleslaw, was placed on the table by the short waiter, neither did Laura, who had ordered a rare steak with mashed potatoes, almost raw, to the point where it was possible to notice a slight trail of blood coming out from the otherwise appetizing looking steak and soaking the pale mash. While her own plate passed by unnoticed, she became concerned over the appearance of her new found friend's dish.

"Laura, I think your steak came in raw," she said, gesturing her hand to the plate. "Do you want to order it back to the kitchen so they can cook a better one?"

"What? Oh, no, I like it this way."

"Are you sure? Isn't it dangerous?"

"I don't believe it is, no."

"If you say so..."

"So anyway, Corrin," Laura said, taking a sip from her glass of water. "I was wondering, how is it like to live with another version of yourself?"

"What?"

"I mean, you have your male self, right? What is it like?"

"I certainly did not expect that," Corrin said. "It's weird at first, but I got used to it after these years. Kamui is almost like a brother to me, so I mostly see him as a brother."

"And don't you have a rivalry between you two?"

"No, why would we?"

"I mean, since you and him chose different paths, I'm sure that you two must argue a lot."

"No, we don't. We just don't talk about it."

"Why not? Aren't you curious about what happened with him?"

"A little, but..."

"Don't you ever wonder if he made the right choice?"

"I, uh… w-well, I do constantly! But Kamui..."

"What about him? Do you think that he would be upset?"

"No, no I don't think he would be," she said, hugging herself. "I think that he is afraid of upsetting me if he told his side of the story."

"Because he might be right?"

"Yes… no! I mean, he probably is and of course he would be right."

Corrin wanted to break eye contact with the woman in front of her, her growing anxiety over that topic creeping up on her, but found herself incapable of doing it. There was something familiar about those intense eyes that made her sit still, slowly numbing her thoughts.

"Do you think he made the right choice?"

"I do..."

"Do you feel inferior to him?"

"Yes..."

"You poor thing, I don't blame you for feeling like this," Laura said, a pout on her lips. "It's no wonder why he is the default choice for battles, while you're relegated as a simple alternative fighter. He probably brought peace between both nations without any issues, while you had to take a much darker road. He is a true hero, while you decided to side with the enemy."

So this is how you are going to treat me, my sister? By turning your back to me once again?

Ryoma's voice echoed in her mind. It was full of sorrow and disappointment. Corrin could feel her eyes watering.

"Laura, I don't… I don't think I want to talk about this anymore… Please, stop, I-"

"Corrin, it's okay, you can trust me," she said, extending her hand. "Say, why don't we leave this place? I can see that this is making you upset. I know of someplace that will make you feel a lot better."

Her mind was becoming so foggy, Corrin couldn't tell her that if she didn't change the topic, she would leave. The more she stared into hear eyes, the more she heard to her voice, the more she found herself willing to follow her. She didn't even think before slowly extending her hand, ready to take Laura's.

"I know someone who will make all the sorrow and regret disappear," she said with a grin.

"Little princess? Are you crying?"

As if waking up from a dream, Corrin blinked her eyes and her mind cleared immediately upon hearing Bayonetta calling her. The witch stood behind Laura, probably because she had just arrived, and had a hand on her hip. It was hard for Corrin to discern the expression on her face, be it because Bayonetta always had a cynical glare on her eyes most of the times and also because she had just woken up from her trance.

Laura, upon hearing the witch's voice, jumped on her seat and turned around. She had no idea who that tall and imposing woman was, but she certainly had a threatening aura.

"B-Bayonetta… what are you doing here?" Corrin asked.

"I once had lunch here and took a liking to this quaint little place..."

Bayonetta's eyes widened as she realized who was the woman sitting at the table with Corrin. It was her! She hadn't realized at first due to her clothes, but there she was! The source of all her headache and she was having lunch with Corrin. Bayonetta did not waste any time and reached for her personal gun at her heel.

"Wait, what are you doing?!"

As if on cue, Laura got up and ran away, dropping the chair in the process and accidentally hitting one of the waiters while she escaped. She paid no mind as she heard him curse of the dropped trail full of glass cups and bottles. As Bayonetta was about to give chase, she was forced into a halt as Corrin got in the way and pushed her with enough strength to stun her, though the reaction came from genuine surprised and not because of Corrin's strength.

"Corrin, what are you doing?!" Bayonetta shouted. "Get out of my way!"

"What are YOU doing, Bayonetta?!" Corrin retorted. "I know you don't care about other people, but murder of innocent people is too much, even for someone like you!"

"Innocent?! Do you have any idea who she was?!"

"I know her well enough to know that whatever grudge you have against her, she certainly doesn't deserve a bullet to her head!"

Bayonetta took a deep breath, forcing herself to calm down. Oh, how she wanted to hit Corrin in the head for getting in the way, but they were already drawing too much attention from the very few customers and restaurant staff, who were currently seemed apprehensive over the fact that now they realized that the witch had guns on her heals.

"I wasn't going to shoot her," she explained. "Just threaten her. I need her alive for now."

"Oh, and this is supposed to make it better?!"

"Look, little princess, I would love to stay and chat, but I can't let that woman get away."

As she prepared to leave, she was stopped by Corrin grabbing her arm and clutching it tightly.

"Stop calling me that."

"Let go off my arm this instant!"

"Leave her alone, Bayonetta."

"Honestly, now, I always knew that you had horrible judgment of character, but this is getting ridiculous."

Before Corrin could say anything, Bayonetta managed to free her arm by transforming into a group of bats. She was left stunned as they flew away from her, only to transform into Bayonetta again when she was a few feet away from her.

"Go back to your little corner and stay out of trouble, you hear me?" Bayonetta warned, as she started to run away.

Corrin was left behind, dumbfounded. She then looked at the table where she and Laura were having lunch together, their plates were barely touched before she started to have her… whatever that was. Laura was asking some really inconvenient questions, though that was not enough to call her dangerous.

Her head was starting to hurt. She needed to get out of there.

"Ahem, missy."

She turned around and faced the short stacked waiter, who had his foot tapping impatiently on the floor and his thumb pointing at the table. It took her a moment to realize that she was about to leave without paying and that, worse of all, she would have to pay for Laura's meal since Bayonetta scared her off.

"Crud," she thought.

Corrin didn't feel hungry anymore, but paying for two meals without eating them would be a waste. She ended up paying for everything and took the leftovers (if she could call them that) with her, wondering if she could find space on her minibar to accommodate those plates. Probably not. She could always find either Kirby or Yoshi and offer her food to them, she was sure that they would appreciate it. Though the closer she approached the block where the hotel was, the less she wanted to return. Laura's words kept repeating on her mind, making her feel less deserving of calling that place home. Gods, she didn't want to go back and risk facing Kamui after snapping at him earlier. He was annoying her, but she had no right to act the way she did towards him. She stopped once she saw the enormous white hotel right across the street, wondering if she should ignore her thoughts and go inside, or if she should find somewhere else to go before forcing herself to find Kamui. It had been a while since she found herself completely alone, now that she realized. It was a strange feeling.

She could hear her phone ring from her bag, which only aggravated her negativity. Stupid device! Corrin wished that she was back in her original world, so she wouldn't have to deal with nosy boxes that permitted everyone to contact her when they wanted. If that was Kamui calling her, she would ignore him. She already had to deal with him in person, she would avoid him as much as possible. She fumbled through her bag, being careful to not drop the warm food containers and found her vibrating phone. Corrin was surprised to see that the one calling her was Ike.

"Hello, Ike?"

 _"Corrin, hey,"_ Ike said from the other side. "How are you doing? Are you back at the hotel?"

"Hmm, no, I'm not. I'm far away from it, actually. Having lunch with a friend."

_"I see."_

"Look, if you're looking for Kamui, he's not with me right now, so..."

_"What? No, I wanted to talk to you, actually."_

"Wait, really?"

_"Yeah, I was thinking if you wanted to train with me tomorrow. The next tournament will happen soon and we're a team, right?"_

She had completely forgotten about the tournament. Shame on her.

"Yeah, we are, but aren't you and Kamui going to participate in most battles?"

_"That doesn't mean you won't, does it? We're partners, Corrin. Even if I get to fight with you less than with Kamui, I still want to know how well we work together."_

"You're right, we should," Corrin said, a small, insincere smile on her face.

_"So I'll see you tomorrow at the entrance of the hotel? At 10 AM?"_

"Sure, does it have to be this early?"

_"You and Kamui really need to learn how to wake up earlier. He complains about the same thing."_

"I bet..."

_"Speaking of, he said that he wanted to meet you in the lobby in about two hours, okay?"_

"What, are you his message boy now? Why can't he ask me this himself?"

 _"Because you keep pushing him away and he thought that it would be easier for me to pass the message to you than him,"_ Ike said. _"I don't know what is going on between you two, but try to talk to him about it, okay?"_

"Okay, see you tomorrow, Ike..."

Corrin groaned as she ended the call. Kamui wasn't wrong, had he tried to call her, she would have ignored him, but did he need to be right about that? She was wrong, but him being right only made her angrier. She was tempted to just walk away from the hotel, but she still had those food containers to get rid of, so she might as well enter and find some glutton Smasher to give her food to. As she made her way to the entrance, she saw a brown, lithe looking cat get in her way, big and curious red eyes looking at her, almost as if demanding attention.

What a cute cat. Corrin didn't know why, but she felt like she had seen that cat somewhere else.

"Sorry, kitty, can't stay and pet you," she said. "I have these things to get rid of."

The cat continued to stare at her. Letting out a purr, it decided to rub itself on her leg. As much as Corrin wanted to stay, the combination of a slowly increasing headache and food that need to get rid of was leaving her agitated.

"Cute… but I really need to go now."

Corrin walked away, not realizing that the cat decided to follow her. It did not enter the hotel when Corrin passed through the spinning glass doors, but still remained around the area. It knew that she would return and it would be ready once the time came. Hopefully on that same night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'll try to update as soon as possible, but life will get a lot busier for me from now on.


	13. One's guilt

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know that it's in the tags, but I feel like I should point this out here. This chapter in particular will contain some sensitive topics of attempted self harm and suicide, so please take caution when reading it, okay?

_"You are nothing to me. Just a filthy coward like the rest of your kingdom. I have said all I wish to you. You are no sister of mine, Nohrian princess!"_

Ever since her conversation with Laura, Corrin couldn't help but keep thinking about those words. Even after years of what happened in her home world, they still cut deep into her heart like sharp knives.

"Oh, Ryoma..."

How long had it been since she reminisced about her home world? During the three years that Corrin had been living in the Smash world, she had to admit that, as time passed, she was willing to stop thinking too much about the life she was forced to leave behind. For a brief moment, it felt like being reborn in the world of Smash was a blessing, where she could restart anew. Yet, having the memory of Ryoma coming back all of a sudden to remind her of the harsh reality of her past actions, only served to show her that none of what she had in her current life was deserving.

By the Dusk Dragon, she could only wonder what the other two visions she had before Ryoma's were trying to tell her! She wouldn't be surprised if they were part of her family, be it the one that she decided to side with or the one that she turned her back to. She bet that Kamui didn't need to go through the guilt she felt. It was like Laura said, he was the real hero who reconnected with his lost family and brought justice to their aggressors, while she was the foolish coward who sided with the captor that she called a father.

Maybe her current life was punishment and only now she realized. Instead of starting anew, she was stuck in a different world with an image of what she should have been.

After managing to get rid of her food container by offering them to a passing by Kirby, who swallowed everything, container included, in two seconds, all that Corrin wanted was to go to her room, curl herself up in her bed and not leave. She felt so uncharacteristically drained that she didn't even consider following Simon's suggestion of bathing in thick salt. She also forgot to call Peach and tell her that she arrived fine in the hotel. Corrin only hoped that no one would bother her on her way back to her room, no matter how much of a bad idea that was from a rational viewpoint.

"Corrin, there you are!"

It took a lot of willpower for Corrin to not turn around and yell at Kamui to get lost, that of all the people that she didn't want to see, he was the one she wanted to see the least. Instead, she turned around and faced the worried prince, doing her best to not show her annoyance.

"Kamui, hey," she said. "How… how did you find me? Were you waiting here in the end of the hall or…?"

"Kind of," Kamui admitted. "I got a call from Peach and she said that you were going to have lunch with someone named Laura and that you were going to return to the hotel after that."

"Oh."

"So once I finished training with Ike, I came back and decided to wait for you. I didn't want you to be alone for too long."

"I see."

"So what were you planning to do?"

"Go back to my room, I guess. Get some sleep."

"It's two in the afternoon, Corrin."

"Yeah, so?"

"Don't you want to do something else other than wasting your day in bed?"

"No."

"You won't be able to sleep when night comes."

"Kamui, I know that you care, but-"

"Listen, why don't we go to the gaming saloon instead?"

"The gaming saloon?"

"I heard that they reformed the place and added more games to the library, I've been thinking that we could give it a visit."

"I don't know, I'm not that good at these more modern games."

"I can teach you!"

Corrin let out a defeated sigh, knowing that Kamui would keep on insisting. She agreed on the condition that, were she to get too tired or bored, they would return to her room, which was fine by him. Kamui just wanted to distract her head for a while and maybe reconnect with Corrin, so he agreed with her terms. They made a U turn and headed to the other side of the big entrance hall, where the exit that led to the patio was.

"By the way, who is Laura?" Kamui asked.

"She's a friend I met these days. She says she's a big fan."

"Oh, that's nice."

"It is."

Their conversation died there and the rest of their walk was made in silence. Soon they arrived at the gaming saloon, which made Kamui hope that the awkward tension between them would dissipate as soon as they picked something to play.

\---------

"Bloody hell, where could that woman have gone to?" Bayonetta asked as she looked around.

She didn't expect to find Laura so easily once she left the restaurant and saw that she was nowhere in sight, but a clue of where that leech of a woman could have gone to would have been nice. By the time she reached the third block, Bayonetta felt like punching something or someone. If only Corrin didn't get in the way, she would have captured Laura, brought her to Crazy Hand and finally be free from that stupid contract he forced it upon her.

Corrin… what could Laura want with someone like her? Bayonetta wasn't all too familiar with the world that the princess came from, neither from where Laura came from, but she was sure that they didn't share a history. By all accounts, she should not know who Corrin was and her going after the Belmonts would have made a lot more sense. She wondered if Laura would try to meet the little princess again, if she had some truly sinister intents towards her. As Bayonetta's anger towards Corrin started to wear out and her mind started to clear, she realized that she made a terrible mistake by letting her go.

She needed to tell Richter to keep an eye on her until she returned. As she reached for the phone she kept strapped on her ankle, she felt it vibrate and the screen show that the call was coming from none other than Crazy Hand. She begrudgingly accepted the call, despite not being in the mood to talk to him.

"What do you want?" she asked.

_"Bayo, you need to come back right this instant!"_ Crazy's voice shrieked from the other side.

"Did something happen?"

_"I'm feeling lonely and afraid that big bro will know of what I did."_

"If Master Hand knew, all of this would have been so much easier," Bayonetta said as she started to walk.

_"If he finds out, he would kill me!"_

"That's even better."

_"Bayooooo..."_

"Oh, just calm down, you big baby," the witch huffed. "Fine, I will meet you in your office."

_"Actually, I want you to meet me at my bro's office,"_ Crazy said, his voice now sounding chipper. _"My room's trashed and he's out taking care of stuff that I don't know."_

"Fine by me. I will see you there, then."

Once she finished her call, she dialed Richter's number, thankful that he picked it up on her first call. For once, it felt like the universe was conspiring in her favor, Richter was terrible at using his phone and, consequently, answering her calls. Maybe getting nagged by Crazy Hand taught him something.

_"Bayonetta? I didn't expect that! How are y-"_

"Richter, I just saw Laura with Corrin," she interrupted. "Unfortunately, she has escaped before I could do anything, but that means that she will probably try to meet Corrin again. Keep an eye on her until I return."

And with that, she ended the call before he could answer anything. Bayonetta felt like she would finally make some progress on that frustrating cat and mouse chase, and while she would be ecstatic to finally get rid of Crazy Hand whining, part of her couldn't help but feel that would be at the cost of Corrin being put into some terrible danger.

No matter how much she was still annoyed by the girl's bitterness towards their breakup of a relationship that never happened between them, she still wouldn't wish for her harm. Once she finished talking to Crazy Hand, she would pay Corrin a visit.

\---------

"Oh, come on, I can't believe I got hit by that green shell!" Kamui complained as he saw his character lose the fourth position. "Was that you, Corrin?"

"He he, maybe."

Corrin did not expect to get so engrossed in her gaming session with Kamui, but when she found herself playing games with a highly competitive streak against him, she couldn't help but feel a certain catharsis every time she managed to defeat him. Case in point, she was overjoyed that she won another cup on Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. Though, if she were to be completely honest, "won" was too strong of a word. "Getting fourth place while Kamui got sixth place" was a much better term.

The real winner was Ness, who decided to join them, alongside with Lucas. He was the real champion in that small round of players. Lucas was also not half bad, being able to place second, just below Ness, but it was clear that he also struggled with the controls and that was what made him not get even close to his friend's position. Or so Corrin thought. In reality, Lucas would have been able to concentrate on the game better if it wasn't for the fact that the negative energy coming from both Corrin and Kamui weren't so overwhelming and distracting him.

"Are you marking me?" Kamui asked, the irritation in his voice clear.

"No, you just happened to be in front of me," Corrin said with a shrug.

"Then why didn't you try to hit Ness? He's in first place!"

"I could barely see his character."

"First you need to get to second place before trying to take on me," Ness taunted.

Kamui didn't want to admit, but he was growing more annoyed at Corrin as their session went on. Despite her saying the contrary, it was clear that she was focusing on hitting him, he just knew it! He wanted to yell at her and ask her what was her problem with him, why she was being so antagonistic towards him and what did he do to her. And he was close to doing that, but a simple glance from Lucas and the realization that, despite them being in their little gaming bubble, the room was quite packed with other Smashers with too much free time on their hands. He certainly did not want the likes of Roy Koopa or Falco to know that there was anything wrong.

Another match started and the first opportunity that Corrin had at getting a red shell, she threw it at Kamui. Lucas thought that the Hoshidan prince was about to lose his composure.

"Okay, I give up," Kamui said and put his controller down on the small table in front of them. "How about we leave, Corrin?"

"Wait, weren't you the one who suggested that we came here?" Corrin asked.

"We've been here for about two hours, I'm tired."

"Your call."

"You guys seriously are leaving in the middle of the match?!" Ness asked, pausing the game and turning to them. "Come on, stay for this one, at least!"

"No, let them go," Lucas said. "No one likes to be forced to do anything."

"But Luke..."

"Thank you, Lucas," Corrin said, smiling at him and getting up from the couch alongside Kamui. "Have a good game."

As the PSI boys watched them leave, Lucas gave out a sigh of relief and he reset the rules and created a two player match. Maybe now he could properly play the game and try beat Ness. Whatever was about to happen between those two, he did not want to be near them when that happened. He could only hope that everything between the Corrins would sort out once they lashed it out at each other.

As for the aforementioned duo, their walk back to Corrin's room was mostly quiet, with very few words exchanged between them, though none of them regarding their gaming session. It was only when they reached Corrin's room, after agonizing five minutes for Kamui, and they entered the room, that Kamui started to demand answers.

"Corrin, what is your problem with me?"

"What do you mean?"

"You know what I mean," he crossed his arms. "Why are you so angry at me?"

"Is this because of the game? I told you I was not-"

"It's not just about the game, it's about everything. Lately, every time I'm with you, you are always in a bad mood."

"Kamui, consider my situation at the moment and maybe you'll realize that I don't have any reason to be in a good mood lately," Corrin frowned.

"That's not a good excuse to act so distant and ungrateful."

"Ungrateful?!"

"Corrin, I'm doing the best I can to protect you from you harming yourself and all you do is push me away," Kamui said. "It's like you barely want me around when all I'm doing is protecting you."

"You're doing it again."

"Doing what?"

"Acting all high and mighty towards me," she said, having to control herself from pushing him away as he took a step forward. "You're so arrogant!"

"How is it arrogant to want to protect someone I care about?! You're not making any sense, Corrin! Thanks to me, you're still alive!"

"You saved me once!"

"And what happened when I was away from you? You tried to take your own life again!"

"I-"

"You need me around you, Corrin!"

Corrin wanted to give an appropriate answer, but a sudden, painful headache made her flinch and stumble backwards, forcing her to use the desk behind her as support. Kamui tried to get closer and help her, but she raised her hand and made him stop. She closed her eyes and concentrated on her own breathing, hoping to diminish some of the sudden pain.

"Corrin, are you alright?"

"S-shut up… you're… you're making it worse."

She expected an undignified answer from her counterpart, for him to lash out and reinforce the idea that he was her hero and that she should rely on him. Yet the response never came. Everything went oddly quiet, to the point where she could barely hear her own breathing. Confused, if not fearful, Corrin opened her eyes and was met with the familiar pitch black void, with Kamui nowhere in sight.

"No, no, no, no, no..."

Her irritation at Kamui disappeared almost immediately, being replaced with a desperate need for him to reach out to her and wake her from that nightmare. Corrin closed her eyes again and covered her ears. Whoever was about to appear, she would not listen to them nor she would look at them. What happened with Ryoma... she would not let herself be persuaded again.

_"Sister, I finally get to meet you again!"_

Corrin knew that voice all too well and it took her all of her willpower to not let her guilt take over her and make her face its owner.

_"What is the matter, Corrin? Why don't you come over here?"_

"G-go away… Go away, Takumi!" she said, her hands clasping her ears tightly in a vain attempt to tune him out. "I don't want to see you!"

_"Very well,"_ Takumi said. _"If that's the case, then I'll go to you."_

"No, stay back!"

Despite refusing to open her eyes, Corrin could feel her Hoshidan brother approaching, until he was right in front of her. She could feel her resolve falter and all that she could think about was why Kamui was taking so long to bring her back to reality.

_"Sister, open your eyes,"_ he said, his voice gentle, yet commanding. _"Open your eyes and see what you have done to me."_

As her resistance became weaker, she slowly opened her eyes, against her better judgment. There he was, her younger brother whom she turned her back to during the conflict. Unlike her other visions, his appearance was recognizable, without the blur that the other visions had, with the exception of his eyes, that looked like two black holes. Corrin trembled in fear as he took her shaky hands in his and placed them over his heart.

Corrin muffled as scream as blood started to pour from his chest, tainting his pristine white vest and her own hands. She tried to pull them away, but Takumi kept them firmly placed on the bleeding, his face showing an increasing angered expression and his body becoming enveloped in a thick, purple mist.

_"We were family, Corrin! How could you do this to me?! How could you turn your blade against your own brother?!"_

"I'm sorry! I'm so, so sorry, Takumi!" she sobbed, still trying to pull her hands away. "I didn't want… I didn't mean to-"

_"Ryoma is dead because of you, Hinoka had to take up the throne she did not want and Sakura might as well fall ill from a broken heart! You destroyed our family and our kingdom!"_

"Takumi, please..."

_"Do us a favor and die!"_

"...CORRIN, NO! STOP!"

Her mind snapped back to reality, the pitch black void gave way to the vision of her painfully bright room and Takumi's image disappeared and was replaced by a panicking Kamui. For a moment, she wondered why he looked so distraught, until she realized the sharp pair of scissors that she had in her hands and how he was trying to take them away from her.

Corrin gasped and immediately let go of the scissors.

"W-what happened?" she stuttered, her eyes glassy. "What… what was I about to do, Kamui?"

Kamui, still still struck with adrenaline, could only mumble incomprehensible words as he shakily brought the scissors closer to him, all color from his face drained as he looked like he had a close encounter with death itself.

"Kamui?"

He threw the scissors on the floor and brought Corrin into a tight embrace, who hesitantly returned the hug with her mind still foggy from her vision. They stood like that for a few seconds, with Corrin feeling her counterpart's heavy breathing, his chest heaving up and down in contrast to her own, just enough for Kamui to calm down. He eventually let go of her and picked the scissors from the floor, carefully putting it away on one of the desk's drawers. Corrin watched everything with a somber silence, almost in an obedient position, waiting for any order. The fog in her mind refused to dissipate.

"C-Corrin, what happened in your vision?" he asked. "What happened that would make you try to… To..."

"Kill myself?" she asked, almost in a trance. "I saw Takumi, Kamui."

"Takumi?"

"He was so mad at me, for killing him in the war."

"You had to kill Takumi?!"

"At the time, he said that he was under the influence of a malignant force and that only death could free him, or so I thought," she tilted her head. "What if I imagined everything? What if I was not freeing him by giving him a merciful death?"

"I don't know..."

"I ruined so many lives," she continued. "Takumi's right, maybe I should just disappear."

"Corrin, don't even say that!" he exclaimed, frustrated at the lack of response. "You disappearing will not make up for the guilt you feel! That Takumi you saw was not the real Takumi. He was not our brother!"

"Your brother."

"Our!" Kamui said. "Still, to think that Takumi died in your path… it is heartbreaking. I can't even imagine how that would be like."

Of course he couldn't. Corrin's numbness was slowly giving place to a painful, almost unbearable feeling of despair, and the more that she looked into Kamui's worried face, the more she wanted to run away, to disappear from that world that felt that she did not deserve. Kamui deserved that second chance, not her.

She couldn't stand being near him anymore. She needed to get out.

"Kamui? I'm not feeling too well to stay in this stuffy room," she said, feigning a headache. "How about we go outside?"

"Of course!"

Kamui guided her outside the room and through the extensive and large straight corridors like he was escorting a sickly person, with his hand gently gripping on her arm and him trying to make small, encouraging talk with Corrin, telling her in a soothing voice that everything would be alright and that it would be for the best that they visited a doctor tomorrow and that he would arrange everything for her. Corrin went along with him without showing any sort of resistance, her gentle and complacent demeanor being a stark contrast to her more irritable behavior from a few minutes ago.

As they reached the ground floor and crossed the crowded halls that lead to the exit, Corrin's anxiety grew the more she thought that the people there were looking at her. What could they be thinking of her in that sorry state? Why didn't Kamui seem bothered by those looks?

They left the hotel and Corrin made them stop a few steps in. She closed her eyes and basked in the faint sunlight of the cloudy afternoon, earning a curious look from Kamui, who just went along and gave her some space.

"Kamui."

"Yes?"

"I'm sorry."

Before Kamui could ask her what she meant by that, Corrin shoved him to the side with such strength that he almost fell flat on the concrete. Without saying another word, she sprinted away, leaving her baffled and desperate counterpart behind. He quickly recomposed himself and chased after her, shouting her name and yelling for her to go back. Now was not the time for her to act like a child, Kamui thought. If he didn't stop her, he didn't want to imagine what could happen to her later.

The scene of her taking the scissors from the desk's drawer and ready to stab her chest with them came back to his mind. He was there to save her at that moment, but he could not count on his luck again. Corrin might as well have a vision right now and throw herself into the busy street.

As their wild chase continued, Corrin turned around the block's corner. Before Kamui could do the same, a woman came out of nowhere and crashed into him with such force that they stumbled backwards, taking away his breath from the sudden halt. While Kamui recovered from the sudden blow, the woman seemed furious, her face as red as the dress she was wearing, and wouldn't let him advance any further by getting in his way.

"What's the big idea?!" she exclaimed, adjusting her brown locks. "Watch where you are going!"

"Lady, I don't want to pick a fight," Kamui said, breathless, as he tried to to pass her. "I'm sorry, but I'm in a hurry, so let me pass."

"Oh, that's rich! You were the one running like a madman and not paying attention and I'm the one in the wrong!"

"I never said-" he sighed. "Forget it, I have more important things to do!"

"Oh, no! Not before you apologize properly!"

"I have already apologized, you nutcase! Let me pass!"

"Nutcase?! Why, you..."

The woman tried to grab his arm as he took off, but he managed to get escape her grip before she kept him from chasing after Corrin for longer. Unfortunately, the damage was already done and once Kamui turned the corner, she was nowhere in sight.

"No… No, Corrin..."

He could feel his chest tighten and the air escape from his lungs. She was gone and he had no idea where she could have gotten to. The image of her holding the pair of scissors came back to his mind once again.

"No, she can't… she..."

Kamui ran, though at that point he ran without a clear destination. He ran as an act of desperation and a foolish hope that he would eventually find her. It was not until the sun started set that he realized that his actions were in vain. His sister was missing and he had no idea wherever she was alive, dead or about to die.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for taking longer than usual with posting this chapter, I was not feeling too well and it took me a while until I got to write it.


	14. Finding Corrin

Time seemed to stop for Corrin as she continued to wander aimlessly through the city streets. She wanted to get as far away as possible from Kamui, yet she did not know where she could go from there. It felt like her mind was covered in a thick fog, unable to think one rational thought, or about anything at all. All that she could do was walk, since her feet were now too tired to keep on running.

Do us a favor and die!

Corrin wondered if she should take her own life to atone for her crimes in the past. The idea sounded tempting, she wouldn't deny that. Maybe then her Hoshidan brothers would feel that some sense of justice was delivered to them. And yet, she just continued to walk and let her mind repeat that cyclical event of thoughts. She would keep mentally repeating the encounters, the truthful words from her brothers, the realization that she needed to avenge them and then keep on heading nowhere.

By the time the full moon started to rise, she found herself at the entrance of Isle of the Ancients Park, one of the city's most frequented parks, due to its size and perfect replica of the ruins of the now extinct island of the same name, combined with the soothing and lush nature. Many would visit it by day to escape the oppressive concrete buildings and frenetic way of life from the city around the park, but at night, the park was usually eerily empty, at least, compared to the busy activities during the day.

It was only then that Corrin realized just how far away she was from the hotel. Nobody in their sane mind would come to this portion of the town from the hotel by walking. Just by taking public transportation alone she would take more or less twenty minutes to arrive there, not counting the other ten minutes from walking.

"Gods, for how long have I been running away?" she thought.

There were still a few hours before the park's gates closed for the night. With nowhere else to go in mind, Corrin entered the park in hopes to rest her sore feet for a moment. She eventually found a white stone bench beneath a tree, next to a small pond and decided to rest there. From the distance, she could see R.O.B standing next to some decayed columns at a small circle center. The existence of that creature always fascinated Corrin. She never saw a creature made entirely out of metal before, but she never got close to him to get to know him better and it wouldn't be tonight that she would attempt such a thing. Corrin would just let him be and continue to rest.

Letting out a sigh, she closed her eyes and tilted her head backwards, the cold touch of the border of the bench sending a tingle down her spine as it came into contact with her exposed neck. "Where can I go from now on?" it was all that she could think.

_"Corrin, I finally found you."_

That voice… could it be?

"Azura?" she gasped, opening her eyes.

Corrin opened her eyes and there she saw the light blue haired young woman standing right in front of her, long white dress and gentle smile almost a beacon of light in the midst of the pitch black darkness. Unlike the other visions, her face and semblance were clear, almost as if she was really there. A lump formed on Corrin's throat as Azura extended her arms to her. She looked so real, it was impossible for her to try to ignore her.

_"I missed you,"_ Azura said, voice as gentle as ever.

Corrin was hallucinating again and at that point she did not care anymore. Why fight against it when all her other attempts failed? She jumped straight to her friend's arms and let herself be taken by her sweet embrace.

"I missed you too, Azura," she said. "So, so much… But..."

_"What is it?"_

"I feel awful for trying to forget you."

_"Did you now?"_

"After the war ended, you simply vanished without saying goodbye," Corrin said, pausing for a brief moment as she realized that Azura was caressing her hair. "We defeated Garon and brought an end to the war, just like we dreamed! Why did you have to leave me like that?"

_"I'm sorry. I did not know that this would bring you so much sorrow."_

"And then I woke up in this world… And I realized that I wouldn't even be able to search for you, because I was stuck here..." she sniffed. "You were the only one who I could talk to whenever I would doubt my actions, whenever I felt guilty for being forced to take another life. When you disappeared after the war was over and I woke up here, it was like the ground below me disappeared. I wanted to forget everything and not think about it and that included you. I wanted to start anew."

_"Yet you couldn't."_

"I couldn't."

_"Corrin, do you want to run away? To get rid of all the guilt?"_

"Yes."

_"Then come with me,"_ Azura said as she broke their embrace and looked her in the eyes. _"I know of someplace that will make you feel a lot better. We can be together for the rest of our lives."_

Corrin nodded and took Azura's hand, letting herself be guided by the woman that she once tried to forget through the darkness.

Meanwhile, R.O.B took notice of the commotion happening not far away from him. He saw the dragon princess sobbing and hugging a strange woman he had never seen before. She was probably a friend of hers, but what could be causing so much distress on Corrin was something that the robot did not understand.

He quietly watched the woman in the red dress take Corrin away and decided to head back to the hotel after that.

\---------

Kamui was a mess and Ike had no idea what he could say or do to lessen the prince's pain. He knew that something went very wrong once he received his call and couldn't hear one coherent sentence coming from Kamui at the other side, but seeing him in person, color drained from his face, on the verge of having a meltdown, he realized that it was worse than he imagined. All he could hear is him mumble "she's gone" over and over, which kind of gave him an idea of who could be the cause of his distress, but he still needed a rational explanation for that.

Ike gently guided him to one of the available couches, not minding the curious looks they got from the few people passing by that seemed to cross the lobby at a slower pace just to see if they could get a glimpse of what was going on with Kamui. He waited a couple of minutes, just enough for him to take a deep breath and calm his mind, before asking him what was going on.

"Corrin's gone..." Kamui finally said. "She's gone and I have no idea where she could have gone to."

"She ran away?!" he asked, perplexed. "How did this happen?"

"She asked me to go outside the hotel after she… had another vision," he explained. "I thought that some fresh air could help her clear her mind, but once we got outside, she pushed me and ran away!"

Ike couldn't believe what he was hearing. He had just talked to Corrin a few hours ago and she seemed fine. He could only wonder what happened in her vision to make her lose any rational thinking.

"Why would she do that? Doesn't she know that it's dangerous to be alone in her current situation?"

"Exactly!" Kamui exclaimed. "Ike, what do I do now? Something terrible is going to happen the more time we waste here."

"I would suggest filling out a missing report, but they don't usually look into these things until the person has been missing for a whole day, or so I've heard," he said. "I think our best bet is telling Master Hand about this. He might know what to do."

"At this point, I'm willing to try anything. Let's go!"

Ike lead Kamui to Master Hand's office, that curiously was located at the last floor of the hotel. Kamui never understood why their creator would have his working place so high up instead of on the ground floor, but that was probably one of his weird design choices. It was said between Smashers that for every two good ideas that Master Hand had, he had to have one baffling decision that would make people scratch their heads. The location of his office was one such decision.

As they arrived, both men could hear a screeching voice coming from the other side of the maroon, embellished mahogany door, a voice that clearly did not belong to Master Hand. Confused by what was going on, Ike knocked on the door, hoping that they weren't about to interrupt anything serious. The screeching from the other side stopped and after a few moments of eerie silence, they were answered by a very cranky Bayonetta.

"Now it is not a good time," she answered in a harsh tone. "If you could kindly return another-"

"No, we can't," Ike said. "We need to talk to Master Hand right now."

"Bro's not here."

As they took a better look through the half open the door, they saw Crazy Hand floating inside the spacious and old fashioned looking office. Kamui could also see someone else seated on one of the red velvet chairs near the central desk, but it was hard to figure it out who it was from his angle.

"Crazy, where is Master Hand?" Ike asked.

"I dunno, he's been gone for a while now."

"What do you mean, he's gone?!"

"Relaaaax, he'll probably be back next week."

"We don't have a week!" Kamui exclaimed. "Corrin's gone and if we don't find her soon, she's going to die! We need Master Hand right now!"

"Corrin's missing?" Bayonetta asked, her concern not going unnoticed by both men.

"Oh, no, this can't be good..." said the person from the other side, who Kamui assumed to be Richter.

Before Kamui could ask why Bayonetta was so concerned, as he did not expect the witch to have any sort of sympathy towards her, Bayonetta opened the door and brought both of them in. As he suspected, Richter was the other Smasher in that room and he seemed just as concerned over the news.

"What happened? How did she disappear?" Bayonetta asked. "Were you there when it happened? How long has it been since you last saw her?"

Kamui was left without words, the feelings of desperation and confusion clouding his mind and making him only babble incoherent words as he continued to be overwhelmed by her questions. He needed Ike to step in and calm both of their nerves down by explaining the situation as best as he could. Bayonetta, Richter and even Crazy Hand listened to him surprisingly quiet, though Ike couldn't help but feel that in Crazy's case, he got distracted by something else. Once he was done with his telling, he could hear Kamui let go of his breath, as if he had been holding it that whole time. All he wanted to do was hold him tight and tell him that everything would be alright, but that was not the time or place for that.

Bayonetta's mouth twitched and she turned to Richter, who gave her a confirming nod. It appeared that they had an answer to where she could have gone to, but maybe that was Kamui's wishful thinking.

"Corrin, I know that this may sound weird, but have you seen her hanging out with a brown haired woman lately?" Richter asked. "A brown haired woman with red eyes? Likes to wear red?"

"Where did this question come from?" Kamui asked. "No, I haven't. What does this have to do with anything?"

"Are you sure?"

"I mean..." he paused, digging into his memories. "Well, I haven't seen her talking to someone with this description, but… Oh, right, I did bump into a woman like this while I was chasing Corrin. For some reason, she got irrationally angry and tried to hold me in place, demanding an apology despite HER being in the wrong."

"That bi-"

"Sounds like her alright," Richter said, interrupting Bayonetta. "Corrin, I think that the woman you bumped into is the same one that cursed Corrin into having those visions and run way."

"Curse?! But how-"

"Ack, this is so boring!" Crazy exclaimed, bringing everyone's attention back to him. "Can we go back to my problems?"

"Crazy, this might have everything to do with your problem," Bayonetta said. "Be quiet and listen."

"How so? We're talking about finding two very dangerous monsters that my bro will kill me if he discovers I let them loose and all you want to talk is about some Smasher who ran away because she's probably tired of fighting and wanted a new life in another city, probably with a new name and a new job and-"

"One of these monsters might be the one responsible for Corrin running away," she explained, her patience growing thinner. "If we discover where Corrin is, we might discover where they are."

"Oh, okay."

"Curse? Monsters?" Kamui asked. "Now I'm the one confused here. What does this have to do with her? Corrin was having some serious hallucinations and all you can say is that they were caused by a curse?"

"Corrin, I know that this might sound crazy to you, but Bayonetta and I believe that Corrin was cursed by a vampire called Laura."

By the look of disbelief that both Kamui and Ike had on their faces, Richter and Bayonetta knew they had a lot of explaining to do. They decided to start from the very beginning, when Crazy Hand contacted them and asked for their help on retrieving two creatures that he accidentally let loose instead of getting rid of them once his older brother decided that they were unfit for the spot of Assist Trophies. Those creatures were Carmilla and Laura, two powerful vampires from the Belmont's world, and they were supposed to work as a duo if they were to ever be summoned. However, Crazy Hand did not eliminate them and accidentally gave them free will, despite that being uncommon among the Assist Trophies.

Against Bayonetta's will and Richter's eagerness to do what was right, they were working as a team over the past month trying to capture Carmilla and Laura.

"Why didn't you ask for Simon's help, though?" Ike asked. "Why Bayonetta?"

"I ask that myself constantly," Bayonetta groaned.

"Simon's face scares me," Crazy Hand said. "I don't want to talk to him."

"But why-"

"So you have been chasing these two vampires," Kamui crossed his arms. "But why do you think that Corrin has anything to do with that?"

"Little prince, I have seen Laura and Corrin together, and by the looks of things, they seemed well acquainted with each other," Bayonetta explained. "Laura knows that Richter and I have been searching for her, so for her to risk getting caught, she most likely wants something from her."

"Laura is a conniving predator," Richter continued. "She is a trickster who is well versed on manipulation and feigning innocence to get what she wants. Knowing her extreme devotion to Carmilla, she is probably acting on her mistress's wishes, but what could carmilla want with Corrin, that's something I don't know. However, I do think that the curse might have been cast on her to lower her defenses and leave her open to her influence."

"But when would she even be cursed?"

"The fortune-teller!"

Everyone turned their attention to Ike, who had an expression of someone who had everything figured it out. "The fortune-teller we visited that day," he said again. "Remember, Kamui? That woman who turned out to be impersonating the real fortune-teller and who kept giving Corrin ominous readings?"

"Y-yeah… I do..."

"All her visions started to happen after her visit, so maybe this wasn't a coincidence after all."

The memories of that fateful day started to resurface and Ike, Richter and Bayonetta continued to discuss the situation, tuning their voices out for a moment. As much as he didn't want to admit, Ike was right. It couldn't be a coincidence that Corrin started to go through that awful sequence of events after received that damned fortune telling. He recalled the tea that the woman, who he was most certain now to be Laura, coerced her to drink and his stomach turned as the realization that all the trickery happened right under his nose and that had he known what was going on, he could have helped her. He could have saved her.

Saved her, he thought bitterly. He was already thinking like she was dead, he had to not let his catastrophic mentality get the best of him! It was only when Crazy whined in his shrill voice that Kamui's thoughts were brought back to reality, as well as an urge to ask him to be quiet.

"Guyyyyys, you keep talking about all this stuff, but you still don't know where to find her," Crazy Hand sobbed. "My bro's gonna be back whenever and I'll get in trouble if he discovers that I let two dangerous creatures let loose!"

"First of all, this is your fault," Bayonetta accused. "Secondly, we are doing the best that we can."

"He is right about something, though," Kamui said, which brought their attention towards him. "If you're correct and Corrin's with Laura right now, we still don't know where she is."

There was an awkward silence between them, as nobody knew how to answer to Kamui's statement. Despite knowing what could have happened for Corrin to run away (despite strong evidence, they still didn't have concrete reason), they still didn't know where she could have gone to, what Laura could want from her and where both of them were.

As the minutes continued pass by, Kamui had to fight against that feeling of desperation more and more. He continued to cling onto the feeling of hope even as their little reunion was brought to an end once it was decided that nobody had any evidence of where they could have gone to. He could barely register Ike wrapping his arm around his shoulder and bringing him closer to him, in a vain attempt at comforting him.

Richter and Bayonetta followed them a few steps away, both also at loss at what to do or where to find Laura. Knowing that she might possibly had Corrin in her grasp had damaged their morale quite a lot, even if Bayonetta wanted to refuse admitting that to herself. Richter felt like he had failed to protect an innocent person.

In the end, all four Smashers left the office feeling defeated. It would take a miracle for them to find Corrin in time and defeat both Laura and Carmilla.

\---------

Peach let out a concerned sigh as she saw the ten missed calls on her phone. She had been trying to contact Corrin for a while now, ever since she had arrived at the hotel, but her friend wasn't picking up. As the sun started to set and she still had news from her, Peach's worries only grew the darker it got.

"It's that woman," she said, turning to Daisy. "The moment I saw her, I didn't trust her!"

"Peach, maybe Corrin is still hanging out with her and hasn't heard her phone ring," Daisy suggested. "You know how people from less technological advanced worlds are, they rarely check their phones."

"I don't know where you got this idea from, but she would have heard her phone ring at some point."

Daisy could only shrug and take another sip from her coffee. She truly wished that she could say something to her friend to calm her worries, but she had the feeling that there was nothing that she could say at that moment that would do such a thing. All Daisy knew was that she chose a terrible time to invite her out for some coffee.

Meanwhile, Peach only observed the hotel's cafeteria in a vain hope that she would spot Corrin passing by, while her coffee grew cold. It was very unlikely, but it was stronger than her.

"Peach, I don't know what's going on with Corrin," Daisy said. "But I'm sure that she will be back soon enough."

"I don't know, Daisy… I just don't know..."

"Corrin was at Isle of the Ancients Park"

The sudden robotic voice coming from behind Peach made her jump on her seat and almost spill her coffee. She quickly turned around and saw R.O.B. standing a few inches away from her chair.

"R.O.B., when did you get here?" she asked.

"I have been standing here for exactly seven seconds."

"She did not ask for the exact answer, R.O.B.," Daisy said.

"Please, be more specific with your questions from now on."

"Whatever," she shook her head. "You said that you saw Corrin, right? At Isle of the Ancients Park?"

"Correct."

"Was she with someone else?"

"Not at first, but I saw an unidentified woman approach her while she rested on a bench."

"What did the woman look like?"

"She looked like a young adult, brown hair, red dress and pale skin."

"It's her!" Peach exclaimed, slapping the table and wincing from the sting it caused in her hand. "See, Daisy? I was right! That woman was up to no good."

"Wait a minute, you can't be sure of that. She could have been helping Corrin, or chatting with her, or..."

"Corrin was visibly crying and was guided out of the park by the unidentified woman," R.O.B. said. "It should be stated that the woman did not show appropriate behavior in response to her distress and displayed a malicious grin the entire time."

"You see?!"

"Oh, alright, that woman is bad news."

"R.O.B., do you know where the woman had taken Corrin?" Peach asked as she got up from the chair and kneed in front of him. "Please, it's important! She might be in danger right now."

"I do not know, I exited the park after she was out of my sight."

"Oh… I see..."

Peach knew it was too good to be truth. Of course R.O.B. wouldn't know of her location, or else, he would have alerted Master Hand that one of the Smashers was being held hostage. Or at least, peach thought that Corrin was being held hostage. If she were to be completely honest, she did not know at which extend Corrin went willingly or if she struggled along the way. Regardless, her hope of finding her friend went away just as quickly as it appeared.

She was about to thank R.O.B. for the information and tell him that he should inform Master Hand that there was a missing Smasher, when Daisy had an idea.

"Can't you track her whereabouts?" she asked.

"What?" Peach asked in return.

"I mean, don't you have a finder thingy installed in your system? You could see Corrin's location like this, no?"

"Daisy, I don't think that's how it wo-"

"I have a phone finder installed in my system with every smasher's phone connected to the database," R.O.B. answered. "I can track Corrin's phone, if it is working and in her possession at the moment."

Peach for a very brief moment tried to tell herself to not create high expectations, that if R.O.B. couldn't track her phone, she would be in for a huge disappointment. That reasoning did not last one second.

"R.O.B., track Corrin's phone, now!" she urged.

R.O.B.'s eye lenses went from a smoky gray to pitch black, with the word "SEARCHING" in vibrant green letters blinking. Peach bit her lower lip in anticipation, not minding the curious looks she got from passerby smashers who saw her on her knees, looking at the robot in the eyes.

Each second felt like an agonizing eternity and she had to control herself from asking if it was normal for him to take that long. She couldn't stop whispering "please, please, please", which almost made Daisy kneel beside her in order to calm her down. Before she could consider that, however, R.O.B's eyes suddenly showed the projection of a digital map of the outskirts of the city, of one particular place that both princesses couldn't recognize at first.

"Corrin is located at an unidentified building at the outskirts of the city's northeast exit," R.O.B. said. "She does not appear to be moving at the moment."

"R.O.B, thank you! Thank you so much," Peach said, bring the robot into an awkward, tight hug. "Don't close the finder just yet, we need to show this to Master Hand. Let's go to his office right now!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I apologize for taking this long. Life has been pretty busy and I had a lot of other stuff to write, but I'm glad I could fin the time to finish this chapter! I'm also glad that I could have R.O.B. participate in this story, I always thought that he was interesting addition to the roster due to how quirky of a fighter he is.


	15. Racing against time and past regrets

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter contains some spoilers to a certain bad ending of Castlevania: Rondo of Blood and its remakes towards the end of the chapter. I am also very sorry for taking this long to update.

"Oh, Kamui! What perfect timing!" Peach exclaimed.

Kamui's first thought as he saw Peach at the other side of the elevator's doors opening was to tell her that he was not in the mood to talk and that he wanted to be left alone. Seeing her agitated, almost euphoric demeanor sparked irritation, made his misery worsen. Whatever she had to say, he didn't think it would make the situation better.

What he couldn't understand, however, was why she had such a strong grip on R.O.B.'s arm.

"Kamui, Corrin's been kidnapped."

"How… how did you know that?"

Ike blocked the elevator's doors from closing. Peach would not say that sentence with that big of a grin on her face. She had answer to the problem, he could feel it.

"R.O.B. spotted a woman with a red dress taking her away!"

"Corrin went with her willingly," R.O.B. corrected.

"The woman took her away," Peach continued. "And from the description, it was the same woman who had been following her lately. A woman named Laura."

"How do you know all of that?" Richter asked, surprised.

_Please, refrain from blocking the doors_ , the elevator's automated voice announced.

"I met this Laura person, she didn't come off as the trustworthy type since the beginning!" she exclaimed. "There was something about her that came off as a total snake! I-"

"Peach, as much as I'd love to hear you trash talk Corrin's kidnapper right now, could you please get to the point?" Kamui said.

"R.O.B. knows where she took Corrin," Peach said, bringing the robot closer to her. "He tracked her phone down."

_Please, refrain from blocking the doors._

"What?!" Kamui exclaimed. "Are you sure?!"

"As long as her phone is with her, then this is her location," R.O.B. said.

"What a turn of events," Bayonetta commented under her breath. There was a small smile on her lips that she couldn't hide.

"This is fantastic! Not only we can find Corrin, but we'll also find Laura as well!" Richter said.

_Please, refrain from blocking the doors._

"How about we discuss this outside and let go of the elevator before someone complains?" Ike asked.

"We need to tell this to Master Hand first."

"He is taking a vacation and left Crazy Hand to handle things here," Bayonetta said as she stepped outside. "You don't want to let him handle everything."

The image of Crazy Hand twitching and breaking his brother's office over the news of a missing Smasher came to her mind. "No, no I don't," she said, a chill going down her spine.

Everyone hurried to the lobby, with Peach dragging R.O.B. by the arm along the way. Once they settled down, R.O.B. gave the precise coordinates of Corrin's whereabouts. According to him, Corrin was being held at an unidentified building at the outskirts of the city's northeast exit, in the dense forest. That came off as a surprise to them, as nobody knew that there could be such a thing as a building in that forest, as there were no signs of people living there.

Now that Richter and Bayonetta stopped to think about it, it was the perfect hiding place for Carmilla and Laura. An abandoned building in the middle of the forest at the outskirts of the city, they would never have searched there. However, they knew now and they would finally be able to deliver them back to Crazy Hand and rescue Corrin. They exchanged a determined look and got up from the couch, ready to leave the hotel.

"R.O.B., come with us," Bayonetta ordered. "We need you to take us there."

"Hey, wait a minute!" Kamui said, also getting up. He was then followed by Ike. "We're coming with you too."

"Little prince, I think it's best that Richter and I handled this alone," she said.

"You can't be serious," Ike said. "Corrin is in serious danger and you really believe that we're just going to sit and wait you two deal with this alone?"

"It's just that..." Richter paused. "Ike, please understand, they are extremely dangerous."

"I don't doubt that they are, but you are also underestimating us," he crossed his arms. "Kamui and I both fought in gruesome wars and had to take down forces beyond your imagination. We know how to take care of ourselves. And Peach… she… she, uhm..."

Everyone turned to Peach, who patiently listened to Ike stutter and try to find the right words. Once she realized that he had nothing positive to say, she gracefully got up and adjusted her dress.

"I know that I don't have the same impressive resume that any of you have," she said. "I haven't fought in wars, or slain demons or angels or even a cruel god. My biggest accomplishment is being kidnapped over and over again by the same guy."

"Peach..." Kamui said.

"But I'm also in this business far longer than any of you and, so far, I'm one of the top ranked fighters in the tournament," she stated, a determined fire in her eyes apparent. "Corrin is my friend and I won't stay behind, when I can do something to help her. I'm coming too!"

Realizing that there would be no way that they'd convince them to stay, it was decided that everyone had ten minutes to get themselves ready and meet at the entrance.

\---------

Corrin woke up in a daze, almost as if from a dream, laying on a hard, cold surface. Her eyes slowly adjusted to the dim light of the decaying room, making the realization that she was in an unknown place hit her. The princess tried to sit up, but realized too late that her wrists and ankles were bound to the stone slab she laid on by heavy silver chains. Not only that, but she also was donning her silver and black armor, instead she laid only in her black blouse and pants that she wore underneath her armor. Confusion and desperation creeping in, she struggled in a futile attempt to break free, but that only brought pain to her wrists and ankles.

With no way of breaking free, Corrin's attention turned to the room where she was being held captive. The first thing she noticed were the decaying stone ceiling that gave her a view to the night sky above, the light of the full moon shining directly on her. The ceiling wasn't the only thing that showed signs of decay, however, as Corrin could spot an old fashioned queen sized bed rotting a few feet away from her, a dusty mahogany wardrobe and a full sized broken mirror by its side. She could see a few candles sprawled around the room, the only other source of light from that room aside from the moonlight that passed through the holes of the ceiling.

"Where… am I?" she muttered. "M-my head…"

"Ah, I see that you are awake."

That voice... Corrin recognized it.

"L-Laura…?"

Corrin saw her friend entering the room, any sense of relief over seeing a familiar face quickly disappearing the closer she got to her. There was a scary gleam in her eyes and a grin that made her look like a predator who had just caught her prey. Corrin furrowed her brows at her, in an attempt to hide the growing intimidation.

"Where am I?"

"You are where you are supposed be, silly," Laura said, sitting by Corrin's side. "You are where my mistress wants you to be."

"Your mistress?"

She flinched at the cold touch of the woman's fingers on her forehead, her body tensing up as Laura started to caress her hair.

"Oh, yes," Laura hummed. "She has shown an interest in you for a while now. She was simply dying to meet you."

"I… don't think the feeling is mutual," she stuttered, trying once again to get up in a vain attempt.

"Don't struggle, dear, you will end up hurting yourself over nothing."

Laura's hand moved from her hair and slowly made their to her cheek, caressing it for a moment before it went to her throat. A chill ran down Corrin's spine as she saw her captor lick her lips at the sight of her nails grazing her now exposed neck skin.

"Oh, Corrin, you were so easy to capture, it wasn't even fun."

"Laura, I don't know what you want from me, but please let me go," she said. "If not for my sake, do it for yours and your mistress's. Soon my friend's will notice that I'm missing and if Master Hand gets on the case, you'll be-"

"As if you're that important," Laura mocked. "There is still your male self, right? As far as I know, he is the important one. You are just an accessory to him, an alternative fighter in his shadow."

Her words cut through Corrin's heart like sharp daggers. It wasn't as if she was saying anything wrong, but it still hurt.

"Then why go after me? Why not go after him?"

"Exactly because you are the less important one to them," she explained, placing her thumb on her chin. "However, just because you are less important to them, it doesn't mean you are less important to us."

"What do you want from me?"

"The power that resides in your blood," a powerful, commanding voice said.

Corrin muffled a bone chilling scream as a terrifying, big smiling mask appeared from the darkness and floated towards her. Its eyes were pitch black, giving Corrin the sensation of staring into a never ending abyss the more she looked at them.

"Y-you..."

"Greetings, young princess Corrin," the mask said. "My name is Carmilla, I am the one who ordered Laura to bring you to me."

Words failed to come out of her mouth, the shock of Carmilla's form revelation left her petrified. Any attempt of trying to break free that she had in mind disappeared and all she could do was look at the mask that loomed over her, like she was a cornered mouse. It didn't help that Laura continued to stare at her like she might eat her up at any moment.

"Look at her, my mistress, she is feeling so emotional over your presence that she cannot even speak," Laura teased, showing her sharp fangs through a cynical grin. "She is so precious! It is almost a shame that she must be sacrificed."

"S-Sacrificed?!" Corrin yelped, finding new inner strength to struggle against her chains. "No, this can't be! This can't..."

"Yes, you were chosen as a sacrifice to revive our true master, Lord Dracula," Carmilla explained. "Right now, he lays dormant underneath this castle, a mere husk of his former self. The blood that courses through your veins, the blood of a powerful dragon, it is just what our master needs to fully regain his strength."

Dracula, that word was not unfamiliar to Corrin. She could recall that name being mentioned by one of the Belmont's in one of the rare conversations that they had together. She recalled them mentioning him to be their mortal enemy, one that had a strong connection to their family clan. Corrin could only wonder if Carmilla and Laura also had the same strong ties to them.

"However, for the ritual to work, we must wait for the full moon to be at the right position," the mask said. "A minor contrivance, but I suppose that we can wait a few couple of hours."

"Y-you won't get away with this, Carmilla," Corrin stuttered, her lack of conviction in her words apparent. "My friends… they will find me in time and they will put a stop to this crazy plan."

"Even if they by some miracle they manage to find this castle, my master Dracula's castle, I have monsters wondering every hall," Carmilla sneered. "They will not reach you in time, my servants will make sure of this."

Laura continued to eye the captive princess with an indecipherable gaze, though it was hard for Corrin to pay attention to it with Carmilla's imposing presence hovering over her. The woman simply continued graze her thumb over her prisoner's chin, waiting for her mistress to finish her explanation.

"Laura, keep an eye on her while I go get myself prepared," she ordered. "I shall return shortly."

And with that, Carmilla disappeared into the darkness, leaving Corrin alone with Laura once again. It was only then that her attention turned back to the woman who pretended to be her friend and how the sentiment of utter betrayal kept transforming into heated anger. Chains or not, had Corrin had her dragonstone in her hand, she would not hesitate to transform into a dragon and give Laura a good thrashing.

She gritted her teeth as her thumb pressed on her lips.

"Indeed, it's a shame that you are to be sacrificed," Laura sighed.

"As if you care," she said, bitterly.

"I care more than you think," the vampire said. "You can say that I've taken a liking to you, Corrin. Ever since that day I met you in person at that stuffy shop."

"Stuffy shop?"

"The fortune-teller's."

"I-It was you!" Corrin exclaimed, the realization making her jolt up, only to be held down by hers chains. "You are that woman who cursed me!"

"Yes, that was my doing," she smiled. "Though I had my eye on you and a few other Smashers before. Our meeting at that shop happened only after my mistress decided that it would have to be you or your male self."

"And those visions that I started to have after your reading..."

"Yes, also my doing. Well, it was actually my mistress Carmilla's doing, but I was always there to make sure that the vision would not have you killed. It would do us no good to have you dead before the time of the ritual, you see."

"What are you talking about? Of course I was in danger!"

"Were you now?" Laura mused, leaning over Corrin, her face getting closer to hers. "Tell me something, Corrin. Don't you find it odd that you woke up from your first vision just at the right moment before you jumped off from your balcony?"

"I… How did you…?"

"How about your second vision? It sure was lucky of you to have your brother by your side to catch you just in time to not get run over, wasn't it?"

"It was..."

"The third vision happened in a completely safe environment, the worst you got from that experience was a decrease in rank and left you feeling more vulnerable."

"..."

"The fourth vision, I must admit, must have been the scariest one! To try to take your own life with a sharp pair of scissors, it must have been a truly terrifying experience! Your brother was such a hero for stopping you just in time."

"...You were watching over me this entire time," Corrin said, a defeated tone in her voice. "Those visions… they were all planed."

"You are correct," Laura said, her forehead now touching hers. "The liquid I gave you that day, it had some my mistress Carmilla's blood in it. Without your knowing, I connected you to her and opened your heart to her influence. I was simply making sure that the visions happened at the right moment, at the right place, so you would break just in the right way."

"And then the fifth vision happened."

"I must say, I almost wished I was this Azura you spoke to so fondly in your delirium. To have you in my arms felt so good, too bad it was because you thought I was someone else."

Corrin wanted to spit on her face, to gather every last bit of strength she still had inside of her to try and punch Laura in the face. Instead, she felt too tired, too defeated to do any of that. Instead, all she could do was let angry tears fall from her eyes.

"Aw, don't cry, you are going to break my heart like this."

"Shut up, Laura! Just… shut up!" she cried. "You are already going to kill me, so why must you continue to taunt me like this?!"

Laura's cynical smile faltered and for the first time since Corrin woke up in that wretched place, she could see a more somber expression on her face. Her captor took one of her chained hands into hers and gazed intensively into Corrin's eyes.

"I wasn't lying when I said that I think it's shame that this is supposed to be your fate," she said. "I have taken a liking to you, Corrin."

Corrin held her breath and tensed up as Laura slowly moved her attention to her neck. She could feel a chill run down her spine as she lightly tugged at her collar and exposed some of her skin.

"Ah, if it were up to me..." Laura sighed. "But orders are orders."

Corrin relaxed as the woman slowly got up and adjusted her dress, ready to leave. She never thought that the idea of being left alone, chained, in a decaying room would make her feel so relieved, but that was the situation she found herself in. Before Laura could leave, however, she turned towards Corrin one last time.

"You know, Corrin, despite my doubts about him finding you, I wouldn't mind if your brother came to your rescue," she said. "Our Lord Dracula has a preference for maidens, but I'm sure he wouldn't mind the blood of your brother, since you both share the same power. You could be spared and we could serve under my mistress together."

"Leave!" Corrin gritted her teeth.

And with that, Corrin was left alone to her own thoughts. Seconds turned into minutes and soon she realized that it would take a while until anyone returned. She let out a sigh and looked towards the holes on the ceiling, where she could see just a sliver of the full moon. She didn't know why, but it reminded her of Kamui's silver hair, though it was possible that the association happened simply because of what Laura had just said. For Kamui's sake, it was for the best that he didn't find her in time, lest he run into the risk of getting captured and killed.

If there was one version of Corrin who deserved to live on, it was him. He was the one who actually did heroic things in the past, was living his life in its fullest in their current world and was not wallowing in self pity. She was envious of him, she truly was. His pose, his grace, his smile, the certainty that he chose the right path, she wish she had all of that. Kamui was also so friendly, it wouldn't surprise her that he befriended her out of pity.

She wanted to destroy him and everything that he represented to her. Yet, admitting that mere idea turned those feelings towards herself.

"How infuriating…"

Corrin started to get lost in her thoughts, her mind becoming foggier as the seconds passed, until she couldn't concentrate on nothing but those self-destructive feelings. Her blood boiled and with that, delicate horns started to grow on her head, twisting in a way that framed her face.

She didn't notice the grinning mask that floated behind her, casting an ominous shadow over her slowly transforming body. Carmilla watched with satisfaction her prisoner give herself up to her influence. She was almost ready.

\---------

"I can't believe things have reached this point, Gram..." Richter bit his tongue. "Simon. I can't."

"It was beyond your control, Richter," Simon said. "You couldn't have predicted that things would turn out like this. We barely had any time to trace a plan of action once we started to suspect that Laura was after Corrin."

"You might be right, but I can't stop feeling like I'm to blame."

"I cannot ask you to stop those feelings, but I will ask you that you set them aside for now. Corrin needs your help now more than ever."

Richter took a deep breath and held his holy whip tightly in his hand, his knuckle almost turning white. He knew that Simon was right and he wanted to follow his advice, however, he couldn't stop thinking about a certain someone from his past, who fell into Dracula's clutches and who he had failed to save.

His beloved Annette.

It wasn't as if Richter tried to forget the memory of Annett, he didn't think that he would ever be able to forget his guilt over her. However, there were certainly times when the memories became unbearable to him. If he were to be honest with himself, the reason why he put up with Crazy Hand's demands on chasing after Carmilla and Laura was not done purely out of a heroic need to save innocent people, but it was also done in hopes that he could make peace with the memory of Annett by avoiding have anyone else fall victim to Dracula's schemes.

Yet, there he was, on a mission against the clock to save one of his colleagues from meeting the same fate. It truly felt as if Richter would find no peace.

_"You have approached the ground floor."_

Taking another deep breath, Richter followed Simon to the hotel's entrance. He had to remain optimistic or else his morale would suffer. He had his ancestor's help this time, as well as many other fighters. He may have failed Annette, but he could still do something for the people in this new world.

They met with the other Smashers that were waiting for them. Simon couldn't hide his surprise at seeing Princess Peach in the group, of all people.

"Wait, you?"

"Yes, I am also going and no, I am not having this conversation again," the princess said, clutching her golf club. "Have more respect towards your veterans!"

Richter couldn't hide a chuckle and was met with a disapproving look from Simon. He couldn't help it, though, as that conversation and the mere sight of the group of Smashers ready to take on those cursed vampires brought some sort of relief to his heart. This time things would be different. It had to be.

Now if only Kamui could share that same optimism of his… He glanced towards Ike, who gave him a reassuring smile.

"We'll bring her home," he simply said.

"Boys, if you are done talking," Bayonetta said, bringing their attention to her. "We have a princess to save and we can't be late."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Poor Richter just wanted a new life, in a new world where he fought video game mascots and made cash off of it. Unfortunately, I like to make characters suffer from traumatic experiences, so I chose to write about a Richter who failed to save his girlfriend.


End file.
